CANVASS-BACK DUCK. 307 



••Another mode of taking Ducks consists in placing gilling-nets under 

 water on the feeding-grounds, and when they dive for food, their head and 

 wings become entangled in the meshes, and they are drowned. This plan, 

 though successful at first, soon drives the bird from these places; and in 

 some cases, a few applications have entirely prevented their return for some 

 weeks. Paddling upon them in the night or day produces the same effect, 

 and although practised to some extent on Bush river is highly disapproved 

 of by persons shooting from points. For the last three years a man has 

 been occupied on this stream with a gun of great size, fixed on a swivel in a 

 boat, and the destruction of game on their feeding-flats has been immense; 

 but so unpopular is the plan, that many schemes have been privately pro- 

 posed of destroying his boat and gun, and he has been fired at with balls so 

 often that His expeditions are at present confined to the night. Sailing with 

 a stiff breeze upon the Geese and Swans, or throwing rifle-balls from the 

 shore into their beds, is sometimes successful. 



"Moonlight shooting has not been a general practice, but as these birds 

 are in motion during light nights, they could readily be brought within 

 range by "honking" them when flying. This sound is very perfectly 

 imitated at Egg Harbour; and I have seen Geese drawn at a right angle 

 from their course by this note. They can indeed be made to hover over 

 the spot, and if a captive bird was employed, the success would become 

 certain. 



"Notwithstanding the apparent facilities that are offered of success, the 

 amusement of duck-shooting is probably one of the most exposing to cold 

 and wet, and those who undertake its enjoyment without a courage "screwed 

 to the sticking-point," will soon discover that "to one good a thousand ills 

 oppose." It is indeed no parlour sport, for after creeping through mud and 

 mire, often for hundreds of yards, to be at last disappointed, and stand 

 exposed on points to the "pelting rain or more than freezing cold," for 

 hours, without even the promise of a shot, would try the patience of even 

 Franklin's "glorious nibbler." It is, however, replete with excitement 

 and charm, and to one who can enter on the pleasure, with a system formed 

 for polar cold, and a spirit to endure "the weary toil of many a stormy 

 day," it will yield a harvest of health and delight, that the "roamer of the 

 woods" can rarely enjoy. " 



Although this far-famed bird was named by its discoverer after the plant 

 Valisneria Americana, on which it partially feeds when on fresh-water, 

 its subsistence is by no means dependent upon that species, which indeed is 

 not extensively distributed, but is chiefly derived from the grass-wrack or 

 Eel -grass, Zoster a marina, which is very abundant on the shallows and 

 flats along the whole sea-coast. Its flesh seems to me not generally much 



