CANVASS-BACK DUCK. 3Q5 



of them swimming in a solid mass direct to the object; and by removing the 

 dog farther into the grass, they have been brought within fifteen feet of the 

 bank. When they have approached to about thirty or forty yards, their 

 curiosity is generally satisfied, and after swimming up and down for a few 

 seconds, they retrograde to their former station. The moment to shoot is 

 while they present their sides, and forty or fifty Ducks have often been 

 killed by a small gun. The Black-heads toll the most readily, then the Red- 

 heads, next the Canvass-backs, and the Bald-pates rarely. This also is the 

 ratio of their approach to the points in flying, although, if the Canvass-back 

 has determined on his direction, few circumstances will change his course. 

 The total absence of cover or precaution against exposure to sight, or even 

 a large fire, will not turn these birds aside on such occasions. In flying- 

 shooting, the Bald-pates are a great nuisance, for they are so shy that they 

 not only avoid the points themselves, but by their whistling and confusion 

 of flight at such times, alarm others. 



"Simple as it may appear to shoot with success into a solid mass of Ducks 

 sitting on the water at forty or fifty yards distance, yet when you recollect 

 that you are placed nearly level with the surface, the object opposed to you, 

 even though composed of hundreds of individuals, may be in appearance but 

 a few feet in width. To give, therefore, the best promise of success, old 

 duckers recommend that the nearest Duck should be in perfect relief above 

 the sight, whatever the size of the column, to avoid the common result of 

 over-shooting. The correctness of this principle I saw illustrated in an 

 instance in which I had toled to within a space of from forty to seventy 

 yards off the shore, a bed of certainly hundreds of Ducks. Twenty yards 

 beyond the outside birds of the dense mass, were five Black-heads, one of 

 which was alone killed out of the whole number, by a deliberate aim into 

 the middle of the large flock from a rest, by a heavy well-proved duck-gun. 



"Before I leave the subject of sitting-shooting, I will mention an occur- 

 rence that took place in Bush river, a few years since. A man whose house 

 was situated near the bank, on rising early one morning, observed that the 

 river had frozen, except an open space of ten or twelve feet in diameter, 

 about eighty yards from the shore, nearly opposite his house. The spot was 

 full of Ducks, and with a heavy gun he fired into it. Many were killed, 

 and those that flew soon returned, and were again and again shot at, till, fear- 

 ful that he was injuring those already his own, he ceased the massacre, and 

 brought on shore ninety-two Ducks, most of which were Canvass-backs. 



"To prevent the dogs, whilst toling, from running in, they are not allow- 

 ed to go into the water to bring out the Ducks, but another breed of large 

 dogs of the Newfoundland and water-spaniel mixture are employed. These 

 animals, whilst toling is in progression, or at a point, take apparently as much 



Vol. VI. 42 



