588 
FOREST 
AND STREAM 
November, 1920 
THE WILD AND WARY BLACK DUCK 
IN GUNNING FOR THIS SPECIES OF WILD-FOWL THE ENTIRE ABSENCE OF MOTION 
ON THE PART OF THE HUNTER IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CONCEALMENT 
M ALE : Cheeks, throat and neck buff, 
streaked with narrow, dark brown 
lines; top of head dark brown; 
back brownish black, feathers bordered 
with light brown; wings brownish black, 
white beneath; wing mirror purple, 
sometimes reflecting green; under parts 
brown, feathers outlined with buff; tail 
coverts brownish black; tail brownish 
black above, gray beneath; bill greenish 
black or yellowish green; legs and feet 
orange red or dull yellow. Length about 
twenty-two inches. Female same as male. 
The dusky duck or black duck, often 
called black mallard in the west, the 
canard noir of Louisiana, is closely al- 
lied to the mallard. The habits of the 
two birds are very much the same and 
the quack of one might easily be mis- 
taken for the quack of the other. The 
quack of both is the quack of the barn- 
yard green-head. The flight of the black 
duck is rapid, like that of the mallard, 
and the quickly repeated wing beats are 
the same. 
The dusky duck is found throughout 
eastern North America from Labrador 
to Florida and west to the Mississippi 
Valley. In Florida it is replaced by a 
similar bird, known to the ornithologists, 
as the Florida dusky duck and in Louisi- 
ana and eastern Texas by the mottled- 
duck. All three birds are so alike in 
appearance and habits as to be one and 
the same to the sportsman. 
Although the dusky duck is classed as 
a river- or fresh-water duck, it is com- 
mon on the brackish bays and sounds 
along the Atlantic Coast, where it is shot 
from the same blind as the sea-ducks. 
They are somewhat nocturnal in their 
habits, often doing most of their feed- 
ing at night. They are exceedingly shy 
and wary and when persistently hunted, 
frequently spend the days on the ocean, 
returning to their favorite lakes and to 
the pond holes in the salt water marshes 
and meadows under cover of darkness. 
I do not think there is a duck which 
is more wild and wary than an old, ex- 
perienced black duck. When coming to 
the decoys, they will circle the counter- 
feits time after time out of range, while 
their keen eyes watch the wooden birds 
closely and search the point of marsh 
for possible dangers. The slightest 
movement on the part of the sportsman 
at such times will at once put an end to 
all chances of getting a shot at that par- 
ticular flock. I have seen a flock of 
black ducks notice the decoys when still 
a long ways off and start flying toward 
them, but when almost within range, see 
something wrong with the decoys or de"- 
tect the sportsman hidden in the rushes 
and promptly swing off without coming 
nearer. 
I am convinced by my experience that 
the entire absence of motion in the shoot- 
er is more important than perfect con- 
By FREDERICK A. W1LLITS 
cealment. I have several times been but 
partially concealed, not expecting any 
ducks for the moment, when a flock has 
suddenly put in an appearance, and by 
my remaining in whatever position hap- 
pened to be mine at the time and keep- 
ing absolutely motionless, the ducks have 
failed to see me. Of course my clothing 
harmonized with the surrounding cover. 
At other times I have been perfectly 
concealed in a cleverly made blind and 
have permitted a flock of black ducks, 
Mr. Willits with black duck 
or other ducks, to alight among the de- 
coys without shooting at them, just to 
see what they would do. After observ- 
ing them and when ready to put them 
up for the shot, I have made the slight- 
est movement of one hand behind the 
screen of rushes, when, on the instant, 
the birds have sprung into the air, as 
though they had been setting on com- 
pressed springs which had suddenly been 
released. 
When shooting in company with other 
duck hunters, I have seen black ducks 
which were flying in wide circles about 
the blind, preparatory to coming to the 
decoys, frightened off by one man turn- 
ing his head in order to see the birds 
when they were passing behind him. A 
sportsman thoroughly acquainted with 
wild ducks will not attempt to keep the 
birds in view as they are flying in back 
of him; instead he will keep his head 
motionless, only seeing the circling birds 
when they are passing in front of him, 
until they have either come into the de- 
coys or flown off in a manner which in- 
dicates they will not return right away. 
When black ducks do come to the de- 
coys, they present as fine targets and as 
pretty a picture, to my mind, as any 
ducks. They fly in rapidly against the 
wind, then down go the brakes, their 
widely spread tails, and standing on end 
in the air, so to speak, they hang there 
for a moment, wings flapping, red legs 
dangling. They are large, handsome 
birds and the rich, dark plumage of their 
bodies contrasts strikingly with the white 
linings of their wings. At the report of 
the gun, up they go, quacking loudly, 
and in an instant are out of range. 
B EFORE it was unlawful to do so, i 
used to shoot the black ducks at 
night on Barnegat Bay as they 
came into the pond holes of the meadow 
islands to feed. 
At sundown the bayman and I would 
return to his warm and roomy house- 
boat, our headquarters, which was an- 
chored close up to the bank in a cove 
of a large meadow island, far out in the 
middle of the bay. After partaking of 
an excellent supper, served steaming hot 
and the more enjoyable because of the 
hours we had spent in the cold and wind 
of some shooting point, we would again 
take up guns and shells and go out on 
the adjoining meadows. 
The island was dotted with pond holes, 
some large, some small, and the bayman 
knew the ones at which we would be 
most likely to get shots. Separating, we 
would each go to a hole and conceal our- 
selves in the tall, rank grass, or per- 
haps in some low bushes, close by the 
water’s edge. There we sat silently, 
waiting, watching and listening as the 
darkness grew thick about us. 
Suddenly, above the sighing of the 
wind, would come a faint, soft, rustling 
sound from far off in the air toward the 
sea. The sound would grow rapidly 
louder. Then the half whistling, half 
swishing of a powerful feathered body 
rushing through space overhead would 
tell that a black duck was passing above 
us, flying very high — far too high for 
us to get even a glimpse of his form in 
the darkness. Then the sound of fan- 
ning wings would die away. Many ducks 
would so pass near or over us without 
our being able to see them. 
Then a duck would come in from the' 
sea and as he drew nearer the loud sound 
of his wings would tell me that he was 
flying low and would pass close .at hand. 
Suddenly I would catch the dim, shadowy 
outline of a dark body rushing through 
the black overhead and visible for but 
a moment. Trusting to luck rather than 
aiming, I would throw the gun to shoul- 
der and swinging well ahead of the duck, 
fire. Occasionally a bird fell to my shot, 
far more often they flew swiftly on. 
Often the black ducks came in quick 
succession over our heads and the shoot- 
