from the stomachs of codfish which were caught on the 
bottom. 2 
Doubtless fish secure some crippled birds which, weak¬ 
ened by wounds and unable to fly, have less chance to escape 
than vigorous unwounded birds. 
Gunners know that wounded birds sometimes go to the 
bottom and push themselves into or under some vegetable 
growth or submerged brush and there die. It is likely that 
such birds become entangled and being wounded and weak 
are unable to extricate themselves, and so die from the 
effects of shot wounds or else drown. On the other hand 
many wounded birds cling to vegetation by means either 
of the feet or the bill and die, remaining there for a time 
before they come to the surface. In Department Bulletin 
No. 8, issued by the Massachusetts Department of Agri¬ 
culture, I have presented sixteen cases where eye-witnesses 
saw birds under water clinging to vegetation with the bill. 
These birds were not entangled and were not dead. Also 
I have enumerated twenty-three cases reported to me by 
naturalists and sportsmen, where birds attached themselves 
to some under-water vegetation until death ensued. Birds 
that float to the surface soon after death evidently could 
not have been sufficiently entangled to prevent their escape 
when alive. Such birds must have stayed voluntarily under 
water until death relaxed their muscles and loosened their 
grip. Gunners often assert that birds have gone down and 
never come up; but there are many ways in which wounded 
birds will deceive the observer. Some can dive and swim 
a long distance under water, and occasionally come up to 
breathe without showing more than the bill above the sur¬ 
face. In rough water, or in the “path of the sun,” this 
stiatagem enables a bird to go far unobserved and finally 
to disappear in the distance or to get ashore under the 
cover of vegetation without being seen. Even if the water 
is perfectly smooth, no observer in a boat can watch all 
parts of the surface, and the bird may come up and expose 
its bill long enough to take breath, and go down unnoticed. 
1922 De ^T9 nt BUllGtin N °- 8 ’ 1VIass - Department of Agriculture. February. 
