THE AMERICAN WIDGEON. 85 
writer Colquhoun, and my own observation fully con- 
firms his assertion. 
Wild fowl will not allow you, it is true, to creep on 
them over land, or paddle upon them over water, down 
the wind; but that is because the breeze bears down 
the sound of your approach to their keen ears, not the 
taint of your presence to their nostrils. If you are con- 
cealed up wind of them, and preserve silence, they fly 
or swim up to your ambush, perfectly fearless, and 
unscared by your presence, which—had they any real 
power of scenting at a distance—their sense of smell 
would equally reveal to them, whether you were station- 
ary, or in motion. 
These birds, with their congeners, are also shot from 
points, as at Carrol’s Island, Abbey Island, Maxwell’s 
Point, Legoe’s Point, and other places in the same 
vicinity about the Bush and Gunpowder rivers, while 
flying over high in air; and so great is the velocity 
of their fight when going before the wind, and such the 
allowance that must be made in shooting ahead of them, 
that the very best of upland marksmen are said to make 
very sorry work of it, until they become accustomed to 
the flight of the wild fowl. They are also shot occasion- 
ally in vast numbers at holes in the ice which remain 
open when the rest of the waters are frozen over; and 
yet again by means of swivel guns, carrying a pound of 
shot or over, discharged from the bows of a boat, 
stealthily paddled into the flocks at dead of night, 
