March, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
113 
Long-tailed duck (male and female), Harelda hyemalis. 
ing the wind. It was below zero and to 
us it seemed as though the mercury was 
dropping inches in every five minutes. 
To be sure we lay with our bodies be- 
neath the decks and thus protected from 
the wind. But on the other hand we 
were cramped in very close quarters 
with no opportunity for exercise. We 
thumped our booted feet against the 
bottom-boards in a vain effort to keep 
the blood circulating. 
We were capped in thickest corduroy 
and wrapped to the ears in sweaters, 
but our faces were exposed and the icy 
blasts drove tears from the eyes and 
froze the moisture of the breath on our 
nostrils, and stiffened the skin until it 
promised to crack if we moved our jaws. 
An hour passed without our getting a 
shot — it seemed like a day. A sudden 
stronger gust of wind would strike the 
air hole. The decoys would receive a 
shower and the water running off the 
end of the bills of the wooden ducks 
would freeze on its way, until each stool 
had a little icicle hanging artistically 
from its pine proboscis. I remember 
looking at those decoys and picturing 
myself being found sitting as stiffly as 
they were with an icicle pendent from 
my nose. 
Later, while glorious pictures of 
crackling log fires, sunny southlands and 
whole buckets of steaming coffee were 
drifting hazily through my brain, I was 
rudely brought back to the cold world by 
a voice out of the past calling — “Here 
they come.” 
Three golden-eye pitched down to join 
the decoys, and I rose stiffly to work 
muscles which seemed far past all work- 
ing. But they worked rather well after 
all, without my seeming to know or to 
care, for two ducks dropped to my right 
and left. The third fell to the bayman 
who had held his fire until I had shot, 
as agreed upon when only a few ducks 
came in. 
While my guide was retrieving the 
birds, I climbed out on the meadow and 
plowed around through the snow on a 
run in a last effort to get warm. It 
helped somewhat. 
We bagged nine golden-eye that after- 
noon — not another species came to us, 
although there were a few ducks of dif- 
ferent varieties to be seen in the air. 
Towards evening the mercury took a 
still further slump. My guide said he 
guessed we had had enough and that we 
had better start for the house-boat. I 
could have embraced him. I am frank 
to admit I had had more than enough — 
there was no guess to it. 
The decoy hole was rapidly freezing 
over and fairly heavy ice had formed be- 
tween shore and the open channel of the 
thoroughfare, so we were cut off from 
returning home in the boats. Lucky in- 
deed for us that we were on our own 
island and not on one of the many others 
where there was no shelter of any de- 
scription for a man. 
The decoys, glazed with ice, were 
brought in and stowed away in the boats, 
the latter pulled well back from the 
shore where they would be safe until we 
could come for them. Then with guns 
and ducks we started our tr^mp across 
the meadows to the house-boat. 
The going was very difficult. The 
meadow grass was long and beaten down 
and crusted with ice, over which lay the 
heavy snow fall. Each time my heavy 
waders caught and I stumbled I felt sure 
I would shatter like glass, just ,so brittle 
did I feel. But the walk brought the 
red blood coursing again and by the 
time we reached the house-boat we were 
aglow within, in spite of hands and ears 
and faces and feet which were stiff and 
numb. 
The fire in the stove had burned itself 
out and our quarters were cold and 
damp, but we wisely refrained from 
building a new fire at once. Heat might 
have then proved an enemy in disguise 
to parts of us which were dangerously 
near frost-bitten. 
So we rubbed and .slapped ourselves 
until a returning glow and a sense of 
feeling told that all was well. Then 
with a good fire started we fell to pre- 
paring supper — which I believe was the 
most willing thing I ever did. 
When my host admitted that it had 
been one of the coldest days he had ever 
spent in a sneak-box during twenty 
years of shooting on the bay, I began to 
realize just what I had gone through. I 
had done a considerable amount of duck 
shooting in all kinds of weather but this 
wa,s a record for me, and one which I 
had no desire to break. 
Barrow’s golden-eye, a close relative of 
the preceding species, is found in the 
west. It may be distinguished from the 
American golden-eye by the white spot 
on the head of the male which is cres- 
cent-shaped instead of round. Otherwise 
a description of the one answers equally 
well for the other. The females are 
practically identical in color of plumage. 
The two birds are so much alike in ap- 
pearance and habits as to be one and the 
same from the sportsman’s point of view. 
The golden-eyes are hunted in the 
same manner as the other sea-ducks and 
are shot from the same blinds and over 
the same decoys. A close shooting gun 
with number 4 or 5 shot is the proper 
combination. 
The Buffle-Head 
T HE buffle-head is another cold 
weather duck and often remains in 
our northern states, or north of 
there, as long as there is sufficient open 
water left to permit it to feed. 
It is one of the smallest of our ducks, 
length fourteen to fifteen inches. Male: 
Head and upper part of neck black with 
metallic green and purple reflections and 
with broad white band from behind eye 
to top of head; feathers of head puffed 
out, giving the head a large appearance; 
back and rump black; wings black with 
white markings; lower part of neck and 
under parts white; tail dusky gray; bill 
dull blue; legs and feet flesh color. Fe- 
male: Head and neck dark brown with 
white patch on cheeks; upper parts 
blackish brown; breast, sides, anal re- 
gions and lower tail coverts dull gray; 
rest of under parts white; bill dusky; 
legs and feet bluish gray. 
Like the golden-eye, the buffle-head is 
found on both salt and fresh water, nests 
in trees and is an expert diver. Under 
water it captures and eats little fish and 
also feeds upon shell-fish. Because of 
this diet when found on salt water its 
flesh has a fishy or sedgy flavor which 
is anything but desirable. When found 
in the interior its flesh is better. 
The buffle-head flies with great rapid- 
( CONTINUED ON PAGE 152) 
Buffle-head duck (male and female), Charitorietta albcola 
