BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 79 



this way at night or in the dusk of evening. They are easily 

 deceived by live decoys of their own kind, and if the gunner 

 has a well-trained flock of decoys, and is well concealed in a 

 good location, his chances of success are greatly increased. 

 I am somewhat skeptical about the alleged extreme keenness 

 of scent of this bird, for on at least two occasions I have 

 been able to get within gunshot of a flock by quietly creeping 

 up to them, although they had the wind in their favor; but 

 their sight and hearing are remarkably acute. Some Ducks 

 will swim very close to a man in full sight and in daylight 

 provided he does not move, but I have never seen a Black 

 Duck deceived unless the man was concealed in some manner. 

 This bird, when suddenly alarmed and fearful of ambush, 

 will spring directly from the water and climb the air almost 

 perpendicularly, until high out of the reach of the gunner, 

 when it speeds away to safer quarters. 



The great natural breeding ground of this species extends 

 from Labrador to Pennsylvania, but it breeds to the westward 

 of Hudson Bay, and seems to be somewhat extending its 

 range westward in the northern United States. It migrates 

 south along the Atlantic coast to Florida and even beyond, 

 and winters about as far north as it can find open fresh water, 

 sometimes to Nova Scotia. Black Ducks often fly very high 

 in migration, and sometimes in the interior they may be seen 

 to fall from far up in the sky into some pond or river, coming 

 down with a roar of wings, like the Redhead. Often in severe 

 weather they appear to prefer to sit about on the ice and 

 starve rather than to go south, if they can find an open spring 

 where they can get fresh water to drink. Gunners have told 

 me that they have shot these Ducks at such times and found 

 them nearly starved, with nothing but black malodorous mud 

 in their stomachs. 



In the interior the food of this species is largely vegetable, 

 particularly in the fall. In the spring more animal food is 

 taken. The vegetable food includes grass roots taken from 

 meadows, roots and shoots of aquatic plants, wild rice, grains, 

 weed seeds, hazel nuts, acorns and berries. The animal food 

 includes small frogs and toads, tadpoles, small minnows. 



