112 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March, 1920 
A MANUAL OF WILD FOWL SHOOTING 
o 
PART SIX OF A SERIES OF ARTICLES DESCRIBING THE TRAITS, CHARACTERISTICS 
AND METHODS OF HUNTING OUR WATER-FOWL — THE SEA DUCKS CONTINUED 
By FREDERICK A. WILLITS 
T HE American golden-eye is often 
known to the gunners as the whist- 
ler or whistle-wing because of the 
loud whistling noise made by the wings 
in flight. In spite of its short heavy body 
and small wings, it flies with great rapid- 
ity. Audubon credited it with having a 
speed of ninety miles an hour and men- 
tioned a half mile as the distance at 
which he distinctly heard the whistle. 
The golden-eye is a very handsome 
duck. Male: Head and upper part of 
neck dark, glossy green ; large white spot 
between bill and eye ; lower part of neck, 
upper part of back, greater wing coverts 
and under parts, white; rest of upper 
parts black; legs and feet orange, webs 
dusky; bill blackish green; iris bright 
golden. Length, eighteen to twenty 
inches. Female: Smaller than male; 
head and upper neck, brown ; lower fore- 
part of neck, white; back, blackish 
brown; under parts, white, shading to 
gray in rear and on sides; wings, black- 
ish brown, with white speculum and mot- 
tled with white above; bill, legs and feet, 
same as male. 
There are many old and fanciful le- 
gends about the golden-eye. The Indians 
of the north call it a spirit duck and the 
tribes on the Yukon stuff the skin to 
make a toy for the children. 
The golden-eye is generally seen singly 
or in pairs, but occasionally in small 
flocks. It does not come as readily to the 
decoys as many of the other ducks. It is 
found throughout North America in gen- 
eral, liking both salt and fresh water. 
Along the coasts it feeds on shell-fish and 
is therefore not very good to eat but in 
the interior, where its diet is water grass- 
es, the flesh is better. 
Like the other sea-ducks, the golden-eye 
is an expert swimmer and diver. It is 
often found associating with the broad- 
bills and buffie-heads on the lakes and 
bays, and is usually very shy and wary. 
Inthenorth 
the golde n-eye 
builds its nest in a 
stump or a hole in 
a tree, somewhere 
near a lake or 
stream. They re- 
turn to the United 
States on their 
southern migration 
late in the autumn 
and usually arrive 
on their winter 
grounds after most 
of the other ducks 
have departed for 
warmer climes. 
When our north- 
ern bays and 
sounds are covered 
with ice and snow 
the golden-eye will 
often linger, pro- 
Harlequin duck (male), 
Histrionicus histrionicus 
vided there are some places of open water 
where food can be procured by diving and 
where this cold weather duck disports it- 
self with evident comfort in the frigid 
waters. 
I RECALL with a shiver a week spent 
on the bay one fall, late in the hunting 
season. The bay-man and I were quar- 
tered in a house-boat anchored in a little 
cove of a large meadow island far out in 
the middle of the bay. 
The best part of the shooting had 
passed; most of the ducks had left for 
waters further south and only a few of 
the cold-weather fowl still remained : 
golden-eye, buffle-head, old squaw and 
coots, with a few straggling flocks of 
belated broad-bills and hungry native 
black-ducks. 
We had had passable sport for a couple 
of days when a storm set in which fairly 
earned the name of blizzard. It blew and 
snowed steadily for three days and 
nights. Then the gale died down and 
with it the temperature and the big 
freezeup of the year struck bay and 
marsh with its icy hand. 
With plenty of food for the table and 
coal for the fire we were comfortable 
enough in the house-boat during the 
storm. There was no gunning to be had 
during those three days. It would have 
been impossible for a man to have han- 
dled a boat in that gale, even though he 
assayed to face the driving snow which 
shut all in at twenty feet like a thick 
white wall. So we wisely remained in- 
doors and as the storm abated, through 
the frosted windows and thickly flying 
snow flakes glimpsed dimly an occa- 
sional hunger-driven duck beaten down 
to the meadows, where the blanket of 
white steadily rose about our tiny world. 
After the storm had passed, with the 
air cleared save for light snow flurries 
and the gale reduced to a stiff breeze, 
we donned our heaviest clothes and went 
forth for much needed exercise and 
whatever sport there was to be had. 
We had two sneak-boats which were 
painted white, for use without the usual 
grass covering on just such an occasion 
as this, and in these we battered our 
way through the ice which had formed 
near shore and on out into the deep 
channel of the thoroughfare that ran 
by the east shore of our island, separat- 
ing it from the island directly to the 
east. The swiftly flowing thoroughfare 
had not yet frozen over but the surface 
was congealing as we rowed. 
With small mast, sail and steel run- 
ners our sneak-boats could be readily 
adapted for running over strong ice, 
but we had none of this equipment with 
us. So, with the ice rapidly forming on 
the bay, we dared not stray far from our 
island and therefore had planned to 
shoot from the shore at the north end. 
The shallow bay about the north end 
of the island and for some five hundred 
yards out from shore was a desolate 
stretch of rough ice and wind-patterned 
snow, with an occasional air hole. But 
adjoining the bank, at the mouth of the 
thoroughfare, was a little space of open 
water some fifty 
yards square. 
We pulled our 
boats up on the 
bank by this hole 
and settled them 
side by side, their 
white decks blend- 
ing with the snow 
covered marsh 
grass. A dozen de- 
coys were thrown 
out in the open 
water. Bundled in 
wool and corduroy 
we settled our- 
selves in the boats, 
only the tops of our 
caps above the deck 
line, and awaited 
the ducks. 
It was bitter cold 
as we lay there fac- 
American golden-eye (male and female), Clangula clangula 
