The Buffle-head 



Naturally confiding and easily approachable in the fall, the Buffle- 

 head soon acquires powder-experience, and gradually becomes the most 

 difficult of all birds to kill. He will not only give the hunter a wide 

 berth, but he will dive at the flash of a gun. He is clad, moreover, in 

 a magic coat of mail, and his plumage appears to shed bullets as readily 

 as it does water. No hunter but feels that the bird is a little uncanny, 

 and he has his little collection of stories to back up his belief. For in- 



Taken in British Columbia 



BUFFLEHEADS 



Photo by Warburlon Pike 



stance, from the vantage of a river bank and at close range, I once shot 

 a drake Butterball seven times with "4's" — hit around him every time 

 too, but did not learn the flavor of his flesh. Another, cut down in mid- 

 air with 2's, fell limp as any pigeon, but received magic restoration from 

 the water, arose upon the instant, and flew away as though nothing had 

 happened. And then, to cap the climax, if not killed outright at the first 

 shot, the bird will commit suicide by drowning. On tide-flats, with 

 never a ghost of a chance at concealment, we have seen birds dive and 

 remain below, self-entangled in the eel-grass, until death by drowning was 

 certain. This fact is well established, not only in the case of Buffleheads, 

 but in that of many other ducks; and carcasses have been found in the 

 eel-grass at low tide in bays which are much shot over. 



A spirited discussion has broken out lately as to whether the Buffle- 

 head is or is not a breeding bird of California. On the 27th day of May, 

 1 921, Messrs. Ray, Labarthe, and Labarthe, Jr., observed a female Buffle- 

 head on Eagle Lake which was leading about eight small young, and was 



1821 



