338 
SWIMMERS. 
and high estimation in which these Ducks are held, spurs the 
ingenuity of the gunner to practise every expedient which may 
promise success in their capture. They are sometimes decoyed 
to shore or within gunshot by means of a dog trained for the 
purpose, which, playing backwards and forwards along the 
shore, attracts the vacant curiosity of the birds, and as they 
approach within a suitable distance, the concealed fowler rakes 
them first on the water, and afterwards as they rise. Some- 
times by moonlight the sportsman directs his skiff towards a 
flock, w'hose position he has previously ascertained, and keep- 
ing within the projecting shadow of some wood, bank, or head- 
land, he paddles silently along to within fifteen or twenty yards 
of a flock of many thousands, among whom he consequently 
makes great destruction. 
As the severity of the winter augments, and the rivers be- 
come extensively frozen, the Canvas-backs retreat towards the 
ocean, and are then seen in the shallow bays which still remain 
open, occasionally also frequenting the air-holes in the ice, 
and openings which are sometimes made for the purpose, 
immediately over the beds of sea-grass, to entice them within 
gunshot of the hut or bush fixed at a convenient distance for 
commanding the hungry flocks. So urgent sometimes are the 
Ducks for food in winter that at one of these artificial openings 
in the ice, in James River, a Mr. Hill, according to Wilson, 
accompanied by a second person, picked up from one of these 
decoys, at three rounds each, no less than eighty-eight Canvas- 
backs. The Ducks crowded to the place so that the whole 
open space was not only covered with them, but vast numbers, 
waiting their turn, stood inactive on the ice around it. 
The Canvas-back will also eat seeds and grain as well as 
marine grass, and seems especially fond of wheat, by which 
it may be decoyed to particular places, after continuing the 
bait for several days in succession. The loss of a vessel loaded 
with this grain, near the entrance of Great Egg Harbor, in New 
Jersey, attracted vast flocks of these Ducks to the spot, so that 
not less than two hundred and forty were killed in one day by 
the neighboring gunners, who assembled to the spot in quest 
