at esepyonse pesstoneesiess Petare bedsespersetns animes onrsr ot Cigpseibé ddbersberaesecs) brgeds bees opegoredeto sete tonrerer mrernneiar a. pe nenstee sheet nibh riepeeid bar Lod bradisrdss DUCK i> SHOOTING | By George Bird Grinnell Author of PAWNEE HERO STORIES and FOLK-TALES 3 BLACKFOOT LODGE TALES 3 THE STORY OF THE INDIAN 3 THE INDIANS OF TODAY, etc. With Fifty-eight Portraits of North American Swans, Geese and Ducks by EDWiEIN S H E P P A R D and numerous Vignettes in the text by WILMOT TOWNSEND NEW YORE Forest and Stream Publishing Company COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. es - Wiyoy fovlusere. ‘ 72> PREFACE. HIS VOLUME DEALS WITH duck shooting, past as well as present, and with the different ways in which the sport has been and is practiced. It tells of an abundance of fowl in the land, not to be seen to-day, nor perhaps ever again. It contains accounts of shooting, often by unwise methods, often to unnecessary exCeSS, of shooting which has reduced the multitudes of our fowl from what they were to what they are. Such accounts may well servé as warnings to us, teaching us now the exercise of: a moderation we were too thoughtless to deem necessary in the old days. Since the several methods of duck shooting necessarily grade into one another, there will often be in one ac- count repetition of what has been said in another. This seems inevitable, however, tf a clear tdea ts to be given of each variety of the sport. 3 4 PREFACE. In the accuracy of the descriptions of the different species of wildfowl every confidence is felt, for they have passed under the eye of Mr. Robert Ridgway, the former President of the American Ornithologists Union, whose eminence in his chosen field of life work is so well known. TI owe him cordial thanks for his kindness in this matter, as well as for various suggestions, looking toward making more complete the technical portion of the book. The book covers—as tt should—a wide range of terri- tory; for a volume on wildfowl shooting, tf limited to the experiences of a single individual, would furnish but an inadequate presentation of the subject for the whole continent. In the endeavor to make the volume justify its title, assistance has been asked from gun- ners whose experience has been longer than mine, or has extended over shooting grounds with which I am not familiar. My friends, Messrs. Wm. Trotter and C. R. Purdy, both duck shooters of long experience, have kindly atded me on atfferent points, and my acknowledgments are due to them. The portraits of wildfowl by Mr. Edwin Sheppard, PREFACE. 5 so well known as the illustrator of Baird, Brewer & Ridgway's great work and of Mr. Elliot's trilogy of game bird volumes, speak for themselves. The pen sketches drawn by Mr. Wilmot Townsend hardly need be commented on. Mr. Townsend is an en- thustastic gunner and has devoted much time to study- ing wildfowl in their homes. The drawings which he has made will call up to every gunner of experience memories of a happy past. Mr. William Brewster has kindly permitted me to use the photographs illustrating the nesting of the Golden Eye, which accompanied his interesting paper on the subject in the Auk. The very useful chart of the duck, in the back of the book, 1s taken by the kind permission of the author from Mr. Charles B. Cory’s Birds of Eastern North America —Water Birds. G. B. G. October, rgo1. 206)" ob * “ONS NAO Johhny, —_—— a re a ee) a a —a ‘ CONTENTS. PAGE PRERAGCES. 3 sie ater atalisitcrtetare\'oie oie ol o\torolesle b miavaiellelain ateteigia G.aiwce'aie eis 3 PART I THE DUCK FAMILY. PRE eee tO hie © ere we tre pst Wiekaie «gcse divx 0.8 atone 33 AN TNITOTRTY SPATS SRS HINTS a ere eA rg PY 34 Blea pn aa es ESEaeae SWVCAIN aise cretat crater aicteretevsrace varelalstica: =iosecineesisrovereve 36 GIB TE, SHE, ZING D183] 2a Oa i Ae en a Oa en pr 39 ESAUI ENN COOSER Maa, criteria ast ne acciaeic ba lcrcic es ebalavsyeteselaeectete 43 IFES SER SIN OWE GOOSIES ceric nisl lc.ntoraaientecc.: shale aiciated cists onckeretes 46 LEREATERSS NO W,6 GOO SEs tion leicc tecle Srelore e Telsuevereieero aionataiacveta: were 48 ROS SaSEe GOOSE Pott sare aya < oerecorchar worere Gwe, tine wich areas le leias 51 NVENEDP ARRON CED! (GOOSES, <<, s<: < 333 RIVER! SHOOTING hctoptenacts ao eieiscloc tates boicieioclaeierotel ciate niet = 335 INST He WV JRICE GEMIEED Sere larettotcte eiailoneiio ee aeieleieeiee hee 351 CORNFIELD SHOOTING IN THE MIDDLE WEST............-. 371 Pointe SHOOTING.» mrt ontich ition aero sae at ilelere ete ears 6 377 SEA SHOOLINGION DHE PADLAN LIC aamreriecitieeh cise cinta: 418 WADING THE) MARSHES Pe ones ie eeihoein @ceiieee 6 ticle lo ates 430 BATTERVAIS HOOTENG! 4 tucks. oe cele stletelettoeieiers cateretraicataens 433 SHOOTING HERONES Awd OUSE-BOAL Weta eter ierieiciacin eicicrre 440 Tice VEOGE TS HOOBIN Gaeta ntaeel ee eo ie eter eee 447 WINTER Duck SHOOTING ON LAKE ONTARIO............ 453 SHOOTING SIN STEEL CEs rca oe eer ae creer rene act rotoslcta ioe cists 455 SVATICTINGG: be vavereceavexeue evetrana ial gets ta seen rch ote eR PE arene erste otc 460 STUBPLE “SHOOTING! 4 -o4 aine bes cee ee ERI Es ae Oko oils 461 CALIFORNIA MARSH) SIOOTING icon coven oo een eae os 0 6 464 CHESAPEAKE BAY DUCK SHOOTING)... a: seo ees pea age PART III. THE ART OF DUCK SHOOTING: GUNSvAND EOADIN Gatien ce rence etiile merece. 493 HOW! TO CHOLDs H55-85d.cthe cea etetersenciomnon are eletelelots Gertie etc 502 WHEN TO SHOOT). ci thns ven ehnbnilen ser bee ars Cee tere 506 PRGHT (OF (DUCKS... sche chore his pes ak cae eee 508 EXTIQUETIE/OF THE VOLIND vin iertsis cles iah = peice mists ieee ioe 510 CHESAPEAKE BAW DOG sr cnet hin eee seeeses gue se 515 DE COW. Smadar citaeteme aac tee eee te eae eiridie erieayen tiene. 522 WOODEN (DECOVS# Wicisteysaicleinie selotosemstaietenie Rei sieiae escent 522 PEIVENIDECO YS. alone state ielerein nteve elciereyeraiearyate siavasctere larch 526 BREEDING WILDFOWL. ....+sececrscsecccccccescsccscecs 532 CONTENTS. DY PAGE EBEINDS, BATTERIES AND BOATS........ avarele cits cts 546 Pee SEENNS ARE WMADEY,.. 5526. ccc secs eked ceecdecocegee 546 PIMFHOMISACETERY), Met acastc hss Sree concrete scoiateraie ieleigiia Mioteloeue wale ae ake 549 SKIN HS AND SNEAKS OATS ie ofa isioiert ac cieewtertte cee screeds 557 FOU TIT HRM GRA T etey sesters sivelars & Se iebta citar e ewe’ s trode oie edie 573 TEE WORK. 25. 56s wabadetelere’ ape sinter che Seis ohslahe as Siveiolesiscotsr nave 572 THE DECREASE OF WILDFOWL. Re Emre, | er tae Se cem Nai ds sec/aividie Ghia Manic earewe wale 582 SURREY IETINO DENG. focas fy clases cca state art orelo.g Simi aialatena « auanots 5890 CONTRACTION OF FEEDING GROUNDS.............0e.0000% 593 SEZERORS AGS Preis tisiciiereicisr erin atonal ainicreloiews «s/c ls orraictom arene 504 INVATIOTEA Ts CINE MILES =" vsieievetslercyete, dicheselenciersy sieneielaveteuie @ ache aah ots 596 EAT ae ts OISONILNG areeparsyachetersteevalo eteio'e cishere’arcievore 0 wise vistsie terete 508 Sean DE NEAT, HNEMDED. jayael va tre sce 4» a:eis5,ia,.2 Sislore vid eo%ed ieee 603 BATTERIES) AND! BUSH BLINDS. o6ce0c0+seccess cone ccs ec 605 -aoks ing x “sanzennng| Lele Pian PA oS ust LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL-PAGE PLATES. THE CANVAS-BACK ; ; : < From Audubon’s “Birds of America.” THE Brack Duck . : : From Audubon’s “Birds of America.” THE SHOVELLER : : From Audubon’s “Birds of America.” THE REDHEAD s : . From Audubon’s “Birds of America.” A GOLDEN-EYE NESTING PLACE. Photographed by Wm. Brewster. “A Birp IN THE HaAnp” E Photographed by Wm. Brewster. A PRAIRIE SHOOTING WAGON . * INDIANS GATHERING Duck Eccs IN ALASKA 13 PAGE Frontispiece s 63 : . 127 . 5OL . Set 55 5 . 319 - oslo!) : 578 14 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTRAITSSOF SPECIES. ISMERIGAING SWAN: «oc oleae aieicielsle alesis tials Gieelac ictoroiete sia a TRUMPETER SWAN. ...... I AAEROE IG AOD EORTC CCIE O A OEE Ren SIGUE t GOOSE wicrevsavare erate leloe Tokete is iavereven a eiese Sroke taistace uous iereie eels: ois LEssER SNOW GOOSE...... Bye teaeee sole es elelel on ele. fiat yetesie C pmtere at (GREATER SNOW. GOOSED teleiotsiiaincm on eels Bertone ete its eee ROSS’ SMIGOOSES fuk. tole techete rotors Ayes Hovteh ote ne: ich tee slele. < ciovesetoke’s eis WIEIITE=BRON TED" GOOSE: fs ct.ieieieie.e waievelsicietoletsvate orersteieie sorietl mie GANADARGOOSEA cmon noes enioes ISAT OSES HOO Ine ies HuTCHINS’s GOOSE. ...... Jueroeceke i fesleie ariayetare re, shslaleis wists 6 lets Sreueie WHITE-CHEEKED GOOSE. ....... sistodatetevele/oicieleietesevalers eine eieiee ee tie CACKDINGGOOSES ener ten: AES OBO COR TOCTC DE COC Ane BARNACLE GOOSE. ...... Sistas valstese che toraie teal atoleteyevoisielere leisveverolaia wie IBRAINT I = is sis 2 cis ethers si ev atalaon (o/ataxavareye eth a wee! mete SIRS ware’ ia:b isis © sb IBEACK BRANT.) osc scl SE Sravete tia) = im valet oe aYeunieroiorateneteistetolate mere cctors aioe IU MIPEROR: (GOOSE!, 2). se eines eer Gist Z Ge slo's pierre yeiticlemieisioins oe ics ore IBEAGK-=BELLIED 0 REE) DUCK. tuicisinicie cielo icteiers wisteeieicie te @iisiele cise RUNVOUS-BELLIED) (REE DUCK emetic ester eteataveusle creasarnecaie ute INT ATSIGARIDS tc arcs ouerovete rarerere eters revere Sievers re ywieleiare ele tereie eteis fofe eB alee OK BEAGK*DUCKIORADUSKYSDUCKH. aicminineniencnsmitts toricneeinisie Iieonain, DIOS IDK Goo poodsaccd6e edeetotelcvateferetererelo cic este score Wioreninsy IDO Gooabocsones Sissel SeLote eiistaaieinrs omnis AE (GAD WADE A! a cy a ifelevous sve eieseiets payretate Rosle Merene onthe aii iclis croevelere ie wits c EUROPEAN WIDGEON. ......... Shsfate esnie eretont fata tetevete elat ete niece are ee AMERICAN VVIIDGEON, SSALD=PATE si iceleriele ctersiatnietniecioisien ici cielo IUTIROPEAN, OBATAL oc.t)s cree ave. cla. niovalotere eiels nie eveerebeeeete sisteie eee sce GREEN= WINGED DEAL, -cicsie ie aleve eg are ele ero sitowie sieieloreinm oriole rie © tice IBEUE=WINGED) LEAT. ccslcte cvslaielararelerslevalere stevcisl etetaciotemnciels Sensor GUNNA MON, “DEAE: Lee ree : bd Deve Gleteisicuio elo meee LOL MEREEERYS) WUCK, co icoccdenccseccede ss SERIA to Roto he eee 105 SPECTACIED FIMDER) 2. ..cecuc es Spat hehe BARC OaIn iinet carey LOT Conrsion Emer! 222352522 Fy ever tae ote ae RR serdisuns merce mare 200 PRMPERTCAN FOIDERS ctictcemcudaa dese sce ee aa Seneca tera, aera ere oe se ancOe IPACIEIG EIDER! 32 s%,<< scpisrehonerevatamicievere aie ale ahevaitie arenatatereie ate areata 5 eis IKSUN Gas UIDER Siyeqalsveve/cvacthefotach (diate) sare ole Bare ass WM erSb a are elutes es Me eines ZOO AMERICAN SCOTER. ........-. sr evatparosaini oie Saiaaiatererrsie eiseneets sen ell PUMERIGANY VELVET! SCULER:.«\)nc.clccidsaccascacaderesecconecus 213 IWELVET SCOTER. 3..2.; Peeeyaveieeis erate ciel sceveletiarsdarsianearee te dace er elo SURANSCOTER, RUNG MBAD os e:ce cae ev sie s gacaveree’estdess sue QI Ruppy DucK. .....+ ES ORO OCIS TAO DO CODOTAA OMDB OCS OCE TER 20) INDASICED! IDUCK, cette cicere Risiinteteyeie aieiar vletat aia mtarevansloheneleite ms aetarcierets 223 AMERICAN MERGANSER. ...... Weelenafelstorrseaieksfaeiaaavereiersveltne £216 220. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, SHELDRAKE...........0.eeeee0++4 230 BAeMAUEE ONSIGRCAN SERS oo. f.cias cieia' dis alorsele a aiaielawienadiea’ ooedccev 234 GENERAL ILLUSTRATIONS. Goose DEcoys oN A BAR............ cat StePenevemetaren hater ants Serle ree eo MEMEVBATIERY RIGGED, Facing pages... ois sscye:eres ores eae ots Sonn Agd SWIVEL GUNS FROM SPESUTIA ISLAND, Facing page.......... 435 PESUBORSSUNGLE BATTERY... occ be ociscee ce nennins attests Segoe oe PPEPOGEPIGUBLE BATTERY. 6... cis cencce reece ctvvess wad ves 553 Sha 0 he aa Gevelts sewers sais 550 Pee MUIR I OATY vais ec civias fa tive Miiscn vedic Fe seleeasttoes mee 500 EOVIDRISOAD leit ec cie snd sie SPA teh a CharT ue a et ara ton Neavacahornens wee SOL SASS ARRAS DUG CO UTS ba a s'0.sisoa.slcele otros etcwrelevee muicisslemcclas wa SOL NMESTCAN IGVPRESS. PIROGUES 6c cci0een 6 csi caee oe os Naepereistarcte <'a, 503 16 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE WOLF (RIVER CANOE fs te cence tae aici se eeh nie oenmton eaten siete 563 BOBGSTANLEY eBOANT ir. cis cremieion side le tee Coe oe Tee eee his eine 564 SENACH WINEL TRON: (SIKIBE saece cle lavsinere toto ie ec ioumn rele oleneisiararem late lake 565 HENNEPIN “DUCK. BOAT x: cic os ciniaie ois \a7e tise ta a steluis aisles je aisisia' =. 566 MONITOR: MUARSH JBOAT 5. cece ctetarsiieaionielectosbitestincice ers ents 567 IDEGPERE URED CEDAR BOAT tietemraiy cents nce ernie aia cae icteivere an heveraie 567 IMTSSISSIPPL (SCULLDOAT 2 sae cire seine wan at erect es ere Tee 568 KOSHKONONG PE EAT VB OAT tees aicteien aie nicistecereitincocniesinoe ciaes 569 IKOSH KONONG 2 VIONTEOR: |v ctersysie oom cree otone niece le ouctetoteiae entre Giecleeue 569 *POLLESTON,, BOATS ..c:c1u ave are everere Oteraiote vole wien lolcleteteiniateuen oiei sions Toran 570 INORTH, CANOES \u-5:55'5 5s d:arcccclsoe eveverale estore aie ore elarsteletaeaerors cia ints 6 571 Fifty Vignettes in Text. Chart of Duck Bound in with Back Cover. INA i) NR ! AN il } Al ALA Vi NY sed Vy 0 ad le THE DUCK FAMILY. THE DUCK FAMILY. No group of birds is more important to man than that known as the duck family. They are called the Anatide, from the Latin word Anas, a duck; and be- long to the Order Anseres, or Lamellirostral Swim- mers,—birds whose bills are provided with lamellz, by which are meant the little transverse ridges found on the margins of the bills of most ducks. Sometimes the lamellz appear like a row of white blunt teeth; in the shoveller, they constitute a fine comb-like structure, which acts as a strainer, while in the case of the mer- gansers they have the appearance of being real teeth, which, however, they are not, since teeth are always implanted in sockets in the bone of the jaw; and this is true of no known birds, except some Cretaceous forms of Western America and the Jurassic Archeoptery-. The bill is variously shaped in the members of the duck family. Usually it is broad and depressed, as in the domestic duck; or it may be high at the base and approach the conical, as in some geese; broadly spread, or spoon-shaped, as in the shoveller duck, or almost cylindrical and hooked at the tip, as in the mergansers. Whatever its shape, the bill is almost wholly covered 19 20 DUCK SHOOTING. with a soft, sensitive membrane or skin, and ends at the tip in a horny process which is termed the nail. From this fact the family is sometimes called Ungui- rostres, or nail-beaked. The body is short and stout, the neck usually long; the feet and legs are short. The wings are moderately long and stout, giving power of rapid and long-con- tinued flight. There are various anatomical character- istics, most of which need not be considered here. One of these, however, is common to so many spe- cies, and is so frequently inquired about by sportsmen, that it may be briefly mentioned. In the male of most ducks the windpipe just above the bronchial tubes on the left side is expanded to form a bony, bulb- ous enlargement, called the labyrinth. Except in one or two species the female does not possess this enlarge- ment, and there are some of the sea ducks (Fuli- guline) in which it is not found. The labyrinth varies greatly in different species. In some it is round and comparatively simple, in others large and in- stead of being more or less cylindrical in shape it has the form of a long three-cornered box. The labyrinth has been stated to have relation to the voice of the bird, but what this relation is has yet to be proved. In addition to the labyrinth, some species of ducks have an enlargement of the windpipe near the throat, and the swans have the windpipe curiously coiled with- in the breast bone. The plumage of these birds is well adapted for pro- tection against wet and cold. All possess large oil THE DUCK FAMILY. 2I glands, and the overlying feathers, which are constant- ly kept oiled, protect the down beneath them from mois- ture and form a covering whose warmth enables the birds to endure an Arctic temperature. There is a great variety in the coloring of the plumage. The sexes in the swans and most geese are alike, but in the ducks the male is usually more highly colored than the female. The males of some species are among our most beauti- ful birds, as the mallard, harlequin, wood duck and the odd little mandarin duck of Eastern Asia, while in others the colors are duller, and in the female and young are often extremely modest and subdued. Most of the fresh water ducks possess a patch of brilliant iridescent color on the secondary feathers of the wing which is usually either green or violet. This is called the speculum. A less brilliant speculum is seen in some of the sea ducks. The males of certain species possess peculiar devel- opments of plumage or of bill, such as the curled tail feathers of the mallard, the long pointed scapulars and long tail feathers of the old squaw and the sprig-tail, the peculiar wing feathers of the mandarin duck, the stiff feathers on the face in some sea ducks, the crests of many species, and the singular processes and swellings on the bills of certain sea ducks. The Duck family is divided into three sections—the Swans, the Geese and the Ducks proper. These last again are subdivided into shoal water or river ducks, and sea or diving ducks. The swans are characterized by their large size and 22 DUCK SHOOTING. extremely long necks, and are usually white in color, although the Australian black swan forms a notable exception. The naked skin of the bill extends back to the eyes. Only two species—with a European form attributed to Greenland—are found in North America. One of these, the common swan, covers the whole coun- try, while the slightly larger trumpeter swan is found chiefly in the West. The swans constitute a sub-family of the Anatide, and are known to ornithologists as the Cygnine. Less in size than the swans and in form intermediate between them and the ducks are the geese. They have necks much longer than the ducks, yet not so long as the swans. Like the swans, they feed by stretching down their necks through the water and tearing up vegetable food from the bottom. Geese and swans do not dive, except to escape the pursuit of enemies. Most species are found within the limits of the United States only in autumn or winter, and breed far to the north, although up to the time of the settlement of the west- ern country the Canada goose commonly nested on the prairies and along the Missouri River, sometimes building its nest in trees; that is to say, on the tops of broken cottonwood stubs, standing thirty or forty feet above the ground. The settling up of the country has, for the most part, deprived these birds of their summer home, and it may be questioned whether they now breed regularly anywhere within the United States, except in the Yellowstone Park, where protection is afforded them. THE DUCK FAMILY. 23 With the geese are to be included the tree ducks, a group connecting the sub-families of the geese and the ducks, and known by naturalists as Dendrocygna. They are found only on the southern borders of the United States, and thus will but seldom come under the notice of North American sportsmen. They are really duck-like, tree-inhabiting geese. There are several species, occurring chiefly in the tropics. The true ducks are divided into three groups, known as Anatine, or shoal-water ducks, Fuliguline, or sea ducks, and Mergine, fish ducks, or mergansers. These three groups are natural ones, although the birds be- longing to them are constantly associated together dur- ing the migrations, and often live similar lives. No one of the three is confined either to sea coast or in- terior, but all are spread out over the whole breadth of the continent. In summer the great majority of the birds of each group migrate to the farther north, there to raise their young, while others still breed sparingly within the United States, where formerly they did so in great numbers. As is indicated by one of their English names, the fresh water ducks prefer fresh and shallow water, and must have this last because they do not dive for their food, but feed on what they can pick up from the bot- toms and margins of the rivers and pools which they frequent. The sea ducks, on the other hand, are ex- pert divers, many of them feeding in water from fif- teen to thirty feet deep. The food of the mergansers is assumed to consist largely of small fish, which they 24 DUCK SHOOTING. capture by pursuing them under the water. They are expert divers. The food of the fresh water ducks is chiefly vege- table, consisting of seeds, grasses and roots, which they gather from the water. That of the sea ducks is largely animal, and often consists exclusively of shell- fish, which they bring up from the bottom. Yet with regard to the food of the two groups there is no in- variable rule, and many of the sea ducks live largely on vegetable matter, while the fresh water ducks do not disdain any animal matter which may come in their way. Both groups, with some possible exceptions, are fond of grain, which they eat greedily when it is ac- cessible. The far-famed canvas-back derives its de- licious flavor from the vegetable food which it finds in the deep, fresh or brackish waters of lakes, slow flow- ing streams and estuaries, while the widgeon, which is one of the typical fresh water ducks and is equally toothsome, feeds only in shoal water. The flavor of any duck’s flesh depends entirely on its food, and a bird of whatever kind which is killed after living for a month or two in a region where proper vegetable food is to be found will prove delicious eat- ing, whether it be canvas-back, redhead, widgeon, black duck or broad-bill. On the other hand, a black duck, redhead, broad-bill or canvas-back, which has spent a month or two in the salt water, where its food has been chiefly shell-fish, will be found to have a strong flavor of fish. Thus the fine feathers of a can- vas-back are not necessarily a guarantee that the bird THE DUCK FAMILY. 25 wearing them possesses the table qualities that have made the species famous. Hybrids between different species of the fresh water ducks occur quite frequently, and many perfectly au- thentic examples of this have been examined by com- petent authority, although in many instances a sup- posed hybrid is nothing more than some species with which the gunner is unfamiliar. In his great work, “The Birds of North America,” Audubon figured a hybrid under the name Brewer’s duck. Hybrids be- tween the mallard and the muscovy, the black duck and the pintail are not uncommon. One of the latter, which I still possess, I killed in Wyoming, and I have killed several black duck-mallard hybrids in North Caro- lina. Besides these, ducks have been killed which ap- pear to indicate a cross between mallard and gadwall, between teal and pintail, and even between wood duck and redhead. On the other hand, some years ago, when my gunner picked up a male English widgeon which I had killed, he suggested that it was a hybrid between a redhead and a widgeon. It is to be noted that the hybrids supposed to be a cross between the black duck and mallard, while pos- sessing the general appearance of the black duck, ap- pear to exceed either parent in size, and the males often possess the curved tail feathers of the male mallard. Ducks and geese are to a great extent nocturnal in their habits. Many, if not all of them, migrate by night, and in localities where they are greatly disturbed on their feeding grounds they are likely to pass the hours 26 DUCK SHOOTING. of day in the open water far from the shore and not to visit their feeding grounds until evening or even dark night. In many places along the New England coast it is the practice during cloudy nights, when the moon is large, to visit the hills in the line of flight to shoot at the ducks and geese which fly over from their daily resting place on the salt water to their nightly feeding ground in ponds, rivers and shallow bays, or before daylight in the morning, to resort to the same places, in the hope of getting a shot at the birds as they fly back toward the sea. During moonlight nights the birds frequently feed at intervals all night long, and in many places advan- tage is taken of this habit to shoot them either by moonlight or by, fire lighting. Ducks are found all over the world, and appear equally at home in the tropics and on the borders of the Arctic ice. There are about two hundred known species, of which not far from sixty are found in North America. Their economic importance is due not merely to the fact that they occur in such numbers as to furnish a great deal of food for man, but also be- cause of the feathers and down which they produce. To the inhabitants of many regions they furnish cloth- ing, in part, as well as food. In some parts of the world, whole communities are largely dependent for their living on the products of these birds, subsisting for portions of the year entirely on their flesh and eggs, and deriving a large part of their revenue from the sale of feathers and down. Many examples might be THE DUCK FAMILY. 27 cited of places in northern latitudes where the gather- ing of eggs, birds or feathers forms at certain seasons of the year the principal industry of the people. A familiar species, whose economic importance to dwellers in high latitudes can hardly be overestimated, is the well-known eider duck. This bird is occasionally shot on the Long Island coast in winter, and is then a common visitor to northern New England. Its slightly differing forms breed on the sea-coasts of the northern parts of the world, and are very abundant in the Arctic regions. In Greenland, Iceland and Norway the breeding grounds of the eider duck are protected by laws which have the universal support of the inhabitants. Indeed, these breeding grounds are handed down from father to son as property of great value. Every effort is made to foster and encourage the birds. Sometimes cattle are removed from islands where they have been rang- ing in order that the ducks may breed there undis- turbed, and a careful watch is kept against depreda- tions by dogs and foxes. According to Dr. Stejneger: “The inhabitants [of parts of Norway] take great care of the breeding birds, which often enter their houses to find suitable nesting places, and cases are authenticated in which the poor fisherman vacated his bed in order not to disturb the female eider which had selected it as a quiet corner wherein to raise her young. In another instance the cooking of a family had to be done in a temporary kitchen, as a fanciful bird had taken up her abode on the fireplace.” 28 DUCK SHOOTING. On many of the breeding grounds in Iceland and Norway the birds are so tame as to pay little attention to the approach of strangers. Often the nests occur in such numbers that it is difficult to walk among them without stepping on them. On the little island of Vidoe, near Reikjavik, almost all the hollows among the rocks with which the ground is strewn are occupied by nests of the birds. Here, too, they occupy burrows especially prepared for them, as with the sheldrakes in Sylt. In Baird, Brewer and Ridgway’s “North American Birds,” Dr. T. M. Brewer quotes Mr. C. W. Shepard, who, in a sketch of his travels in northern Iceland, gives the following account of the tameness and breed- ing there of the eider: “The islands of Vigr and Oedey are their headquar- ters in the northwest of Iceland. In these they live in undisturbed tranquillity. They have become almost do- mesticated, and are found in vast multitudes, as the young remain and breed in the place of their birth. As the island (Vigr) was approached we could see flocks upon flocks of the sacred birds, and could hear their cooing at a great distance. We landed on a rocky, wave-worn shore. It was the most wonderful ornithological sight conceivable. The ducks and their nests were everywhere. Great. brown ducks sat upon their nests in masses, and at every step started from under our feet. It was with difficulty that we avoided treading on some of the nests. On the coast of the opposite shore was a wall built of large stones, just THE DUCK FAMILY. 29 above the high-water level, about three feet in height and of considerable thickness. At the bottom, on both sides of it, alternate stones had been left out, so as to form a series of square compartments for the ducks to nest in. Almost every compartment was occupied, and as we walked along the shore a long line of ducks flew out, one after the other. The surface of the water also was perfectly white with drakes, who welcomed their brown wives with loud and clamorous cooing. The house itself was a marvel. The earthen walls that surrounded it and the window embrasures were oc- cupied by ducks. On the ground the house was fringed with ducks. On the turf slopes of its roof we could see ducks, and a duck sat on the door-scraper. The grassy banks had been cut into square patches, about eighteen inches having been removed, and each hollow had been filled with ducks. A windmill was in- fested,and so were all the outhouses, mounds, rocks and ‘crevices. The ducks were everywhere. Many were so tame that we could stroke them on their nests; and the good lady told us that there was scarcely a duck on the island that would not allow her to take its eggs without flight or fear. Our hostess told us that when she first became possessor of the island the produce of down from the ducks was not more than fifteen pounds in a year; but that under her careful nurture of twenty years it had risen to nearly one hundred pounds an- nually. Most of the eggs are taken and pickled for winter consumption, one or two only being left in each nest to hatch.” 30 DUCK SHOOTING. Although breeding in great numbers on the coast of Labrador and in other Canadian waters, the eider duck is practically not protected there, and indeed is scarcely made use of commercially in America. We have not yet advanced sufficiently to take advantage of our op- portunities. Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, in the “Standard Natural History,” writing of the European sheldrake (Tadorna)—which must not be confounded with any of the birds (Mergus) which we of the United States call sheldrakes—almost parallels Mr. Shepard’s ac- count, but on a smaller scale. He says: ‘The inhabi- tants on several of the small sandy islands off the west- ern coast of Jutland—notably, the Island of Sylt—have - made the whole colony of sheldrakes breeding there a source of considerable income by judiciously taxing the birds for eggs and down, supplying them in return with burrows of easy access and protecting them against all kinds of injury. The construction of such a duck burrow is described by Johann Friedrich Nau- mann, who says that all the digging, with the excep- tion of the entrance tunnel, is made from above. On top of small rounded hills, covered with grass, the breeding chambers are first dug out to a uniform depth of two or three feet. These are then connected by horizontal tunnels and finally with the common en- trance. Each breeding chamber is closed above with a tightly fitting piece of sod, which can be lifted up like a lid when the nest is to be examined and plundered. Such a complex burrow may contain from ten to THE DUCK FAMILY. 31 twenty nest chambers, but in the latter case there are usually two entrances. The birds, which, on account of the protection extended to them through ages, are quite tame, take very eagerly to the burrows. As soon as the female has laid six eggs the egging commences, and every one above that number is taken away, a sin- gle bird often laying twenty or thirty eggs in a season. The birds are so tame that, when the lid is opened, the female still sits on the nest, not walking off into the next room until touched by the egg-gatherer’s hand. When no more fresh eggs are found in the nest, the down composing the latter is also collected, being in quality nearly equal to eider down.” The importance of the wildfowl to the natives of northern climes has been indicated, and it is well known that in the United States the killing of these birds on their migrations and during their winter residence is a matter of some commercial moment, giving employ- ment to many men and requiring the investment of not a little capital. Years ago, when the birds were far more numerous than now, isolated posts of the Hud- son’s Bay Co. in Canada depended for support dur- ing a part of the year on the geese that they killed dur- ing the migrations and dried or smoked. Gunning for the market occupies many men during the winter, and the occasional great rewards received for a day’s work in the blind or the battery lead many to make a serious business of it, though it is quite certain that, taking the season through, the work will not payordinary day’s wages to the man who guns. Nevertheless, we knew 32 "DUCK SHOOTING. of a gunner who in January, 1900, killed $130 worth of birds in a day, and of another who in February, 1899, killed $206 worth in one day. It must be remem- bered that this gunning is going on during the whole winter all over the South every day except Sunday. The number of birds killed must be very great and must far exceed those hatched and reared each year. AVE Ve ZN in ia Wy a > GAY Wf CO) PL eae SWANS. SUB-FAMILY Cygnine. The swans are the largest of our water fowl, and the American species measure nearly or quite five feet in length. The naked skin of the bill runs back to the eye, covering the lores; the bill is high at the base, but broad and flattened toward the tip; the tarsus is reticu- late, and shorter than the middle toe. In our species the feathers do not come down to the tibio-tarsal joint. The two American species are white in the adult plum- age, the immature birds being gray. Both species belong to the restricted genus Olor, which is distinguished from the true Cygnus by not having a tubercle at the base of the bill. Thus in the ornithologies, and in the American Ornithologists’ Union Check List, the generic name is given as Olor, but the term Cygnus will answer the purposes of this volume. Although the two swans are much alike, they may readily be distinguished by the characters to be here- after given; that is to say, the number of the tail feath- ers and the position of the nostril opening in the bill. 83 AMERICAN SWAN. Cygnus columbianus (ORD). The common swan is slightly smaller than the trumpeter, but is colored like it, except that on the naked lores, just before the eye, there is a spot of yel- low. This, however, is not invariably present, and is usually lacking in the young birds. The tail feathers are 20 instead of 24, and this with the fact that the nostrils open half way down the bill (instead of being in the basal half, as in the trumpeter swan), will al- ways serve to distinguish the two. The young are gray, with a pink bill, which later turns white, and finally black. As the young grow 34 Drceumes AMERICAN SWAN. 38 older, the body becomes white, then the neck, and last of all the head. During the autumn, winter and spring this swan occurs in greater or less abundance all over the United States, occasionally being found as far south as Flor- ida. It is rarely seen, however, off the New England coast. Its breeding grounds are in Alaska, and Dr. Dall reported it common all along the Yukon, and says that it arrives with the geese about May Ist, but ap- pears coming down the Yukon instead of up the stream. It breeds in the great marshes, near the mouth of that river. This species is said to be much more common on the Pacific than on the Atlantic coast, in winter resorting in great numbers to lakes in Washington, Oregon and portions of California, where it is often found mingled with the trumpeter swan. It is common in winter on the South Atlantic coast, being usually abundant in the Chesapeake Bay and in Currituck Sound and to the southward. Congregating in great flocks, its snowy plumage and musical call notes are pleasing features of this wide water. Few swans are killed, and the old- time gunners declare that swans are as numerous as they ever were, or are even increasing. The whooping swan of Europe (Cygnus cygnus) is supposed to occur in Greenland, and is therefore given in the ornithologies as a bird of America. It has not been taken on this continent. It is white in color, and has the bill black at the tip, with the lores and basal portion of the bill yellow. - TRUMPETER SWAN. Cygnus buccinator (RIcH.). The plumage of the trumpeter swan is white throughout; the naked black skin of the bill extends back to the eyes, covering what is called the lores, and the bill and feet are wholly black. The tail feathers are twenty-four in number, and this character will dis- tinguish it from our only other swan, the species just mentioned. The bill is longer than the head, and the bird measures about five feet in total length. The spread of wings is great, sometimes ten feet. Audu- bon records a specimen which weighed 38 pounds. The young are gray, the head often washed with 36 TRUMPETER SWAN. 57 rusty, but grow whiter as they advance in years. The gray of the head and neck is the last to disappear. In the young the bill is flesh color at the base, dusky at tip; feet gray. The trumpeter swan is a western species, and is scarcely found east of the Mississippi River. Formerly it bred over much of the western country, though un- doubtedly most of the birds repaired to the far North to rear their young. Many years ago I found it breeding on a little lake in Nebraska, and I have seen it in summer on the Yellowstone Lake, in Wyoming. The nest is built on the ground, and the eggs are white or cream color. In agreement with what is known of the trumpeter swan in the United States, its breeding grounds in the North appear to be inland. Explorers give the Hud- son’s Bay as one of its resorts, where it is said to be one of the earliest migratory birds to arrive. It breeds on the islands and in the marshes, and on the shores of the fresh water lakes, and is said to lay from five to seven eggs. It is stated also that it is monogamous, and that the mating is for life. During the period of the molt, when the swans are unable to fly, they are eagerly pursued by the Indians, not always success- fully, since they are able to swim and to flap over the water as fast as a canoe can be paddled. The swan breeds also in the barren grounds on the head of the Fraser River, and at various points on the Mackenzie River ; it has been reported also from Norton Sound. The note of the trumpeter, from which it takes its 38 DUCK SHOOTING. name, is loud and resonant, and so closely resembles that of the sandhill crane that it is not always easy to distinguish the two apart. Authors connect the great power and volume of the trumpeter’s voice with the curiously convoluted windpipe of the species. The young birds are very good eating, while the older ones, as a rule, are very tough and hardly edible. GEESE AND BRANT, SUB-FAMILY Anserine. The geese stand midway between the swans and the ducks in size and general appearance, though their ac- tual affinities are not these, the swans and ducks being more nearly related structurally than is either group to the geese. From the swans the geese may be distin- guished by their smaller size and shorter neck, by hav- ing the lores, or space between the eye and bill, feath- ered instead of naked, and the bill proportionately shorter, deeper and much less broad, in some forms ap- proaching a conical shape. They differ from the ducks in their greater size, longer necks and legs, and usually in the shape of the bill, which is relatively stouter and less broad than in most ducks. An important difference is seen also in the tarsus, or naked portion of the leg, between the joint just where the feathers end and that below, where the toes spread out. In the geese this tarsus is covered with a naked skin, marked with small divisions like the meshes of a net, while in the ducks the front of the tarsus is covered by overlapping plates which are termed scales or scutellz. Thus in the geese the tarsus is said to be reticulate; in the ducks it is scu- tellate. In all our species the sexes are alike, but they are very 39 40 DUCK SHOOTING. different in some South American and Old World species. In the sub-family are included the dozen species and sub-species of geese found in North America. They are divided into four genera, two of which contain a single species each, the others several each. One genus is almost confined to Alaska, while another has a gen- eral distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. The snow goose and its forms and the blue goose have a wide range, while little is known about that of Ross’s goose. The dark-colored or gray geese, included in the genus Branta, are very abundant along both coasts of the continent, yet are by no means lacking in the in- terior. They include the common Canada goose, with its forms, and the barnacle and brant geese. The brant and its Western relative, the black brant; are chiefly maritime in habit, and are seldom found in the interior. On the other hand, the snow goose, and some of its forms, are regular visitants to certain points on the At- lantic coast. A few years ago a flock of these birds was always to be found in winter in the mouth of the Dela- ware River. Stray birds are sometimes seen on the New England coast and on Long Island. On the beach which lies outside of Currituck Sound a flock of five hundred or a thousand of these birds is found each win- ter. The gray geese, so called, all have the bills, feet, head and neck black. There are patches or touches of white about the cheeks or throat, whence they have been called cravat geese; the upper parts of the body are dark gray em tt GEESE AND BRANT. Al and the belly and tail coverts white. The white-fronted goose, genus Anser, is much paler gray, has the bill and feet pink, and has no black except spots on breast and belly. In the genus Chen three forms are pure white, except for the quill feathers of the wings, which are black. All have the head white in adult plumage. Philacte, the Alaska type, is grayish or bluish in color, variously marked with white. The North American geese are birds of powerful flight, non-divers, well adapted for progression on the land, usually breeders in high latitude, but wintering in open waters. Some are large birds, while others are smaller than some of the ducks, the weight in different species varying from 15 to 3 pounds. They feed almost altogether on vegetable matter. largely grass and aquatic plants; and sometimes, after feeding for a time on the roots of certain sedges and other water plants, their flesh becomes very unpalatable from the strong flaver given it by this food. Geese are noisy birds, the voice of the smaller ones being shrill and cackling, while the cry of others, like the common Canada goose, is sonorous and resonant. Many years ago the geese, during the spring and autumn migration, were so enormously abundant in portions of Minnesota and in California that they did a vast amount of damage by eating the young wheat just appearing above the ground. In those days it was pos- sible to approach quite close to them on horseback, and the rider, having gotten as near to them as practicable, would charge upon the feeding flock, get among them 42 DUCK SHOOTING. before they could rise out of reach, and knock down several with a short club which he carried in his hand. It may be questioned whether this method of killing geese has been employed for a long time. In more re- cent years it is said to have been necessary for the Cali- fornia ranchers during the migrations to employ armed men, whose business it was to ride about, shooting with rifles at the feeding flocks and endeavoring to keep them constantly on the wing. BLUE GOOSE. Chen cerulescens (LINN.). In the adult the head and upper part of the neck are white; the rest of the neck, breast, back and rump blu- ish, or brownish-blue, many of the feathers with paler edges; wing light bluish gray; secondaries blackish, edged with white; primaries black, fading to gray at the base; tail brown, white margined; under parts brownish gray and white, sometimes mostly white, and upper and under tail coverts white, or nearly so. The bill is pale pink, with white nail and a black line along the margin of each mandible. The legs and feet are pink or reddish. 43 44 DUCK SHOOTING. The young resemble the adult, but have the head and neck grayish brown. The length of this goose is about 28 inches ; the wing measures 16. Like many others of our inland water fowl, this goose often has the plumage of head, neck, breast and belly stained with rusty orange, as if soiled by iron rust. The blue goose is an inhabitant of the interior, rang- ing from the Hudson’s Bay district south along the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf of Mexico. It is not found on either the Atlantic or Pacific coast, except that in a few cases it has been taken on the extreme northern coast of Maine. Little or nothing is known about its breeding habits, though the Eskimo and In- dians are authority for the statement that it breeds in the interior of Labrador; and the occurrence of the species in Maine would seem to lend color to this story. Moreover, Mr. G. Barnston, in his paper on the Geese of Hudson’s Bay, states that in the migration, the blue goose crosses James Bay, coming from the eastern coast, while at the same time the snow goose makes its appearance coming from the north. This species was long thought to be the young of the snow goose, and was so figured by Audubon, appearing on the same plate with that species. Occasionally speci- mens are found which have considerably more white on them than is given in the description above, but on the whole, it seems to be very well established that the species is a valid one. The color of the head and upper neck varies somewhat with age, the white of these parts BLUE GOOSE. 45 growing purer and less intermingled with dark feathers as the bird grows older. This is one of the so-called brant of the Mississippi Valley, and is known by a number of names, among which are blue brant, bald-headed goose, white-headed goose, ove bleu and bald brant. Being confined to the inland districts of the country, it is shot chiefly on the stubbles or the sand bars or in corn fields. LESSER SNOW GOOSE. Chen hyperborea (CPALE, ): The adult is entirely white, except the primaries, or quill feathers of the first joint of the wing, which are black, changing to ash gray at the base. The bill is dark red, with black line along the margin of man- dibles; the nail white; the legs and feet red; length, about 25 inches; wing, 15 1-2. In the young the head, neck and upper parts are pale grayish, with the wing coverts and tertiary feathers brown, edged with white. The primaries are black, and the rest of the upper parts white. The bill and feet are dark. The true snow goose is a bird of Western distribu- tion, reaching from the Mississippi Valley westward to 46 < nt f LESSER SNOW GOOSE. 47 the coast,and as far south as Texas and Southern Cali- fornia. It, nevertheless, occurs sometimes on the At- lantic coast, and I have known of its being killed on Long Island. It is perhaps the most abundant goose found in California, and occurs in large numbers all over the country from the valley of the Mississippi west to the Rocky Mountains, where it is often associated with the larger snow goose, to be described later. On the plains of Montana, near the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, they are abundant, and when they first ar- rive are quite gentle, so that I have often ridden on horseback within easy shooting distance of them, al- though a man on foot would not have been permitted to approach so near. In the Hudson’s Bay district both forms of snow goose are abundant, and in old times used to form an important article of subsistence for the Hudson’s Bay posts. Of late years, however, they have become so scarce that this source of food supply can no longer be depended upon. While the flesh of both the snow geese is highly es- teemed by some people, I have never considered it de- sirable. Usually it has a strong taste of sedge, so pro- nounced as to be, to some palates, very disagreeable. GREATER SNOW GOOSE. Chen hyperborea nivalis (Forst.). Precisely similar in all respects to the preceding, but larger. While the length of C. hyperborea is about 25 inches, with a wing 15 1-2 inches, that of the present sub-species is 34 inches, with a wing over 17 inches. The two forms are often found associated together, and it is frequently difficult to determine to which one a bird belongs. The snow geese differ from many of their fellows in feeding largely on the land. They walk about much as do the domestic geese, nipping the grass and such other herbs as please their taste, and resort to the water chiefly for resting. 48 GREATER SNOW GOOSE. 49 The nest of the greater snow goose, as described by Mr. Macfarlane, consists merely of a hollow or depres- sion in the soil, lined with down and feathers. The eggs are large and are yellowish-white. All these interior geese, such as the blue goose and all the white geese, are known among the Indians and Hudson’s Bay people of the north as wavies, the blue goose being called the blue wavy, the snow goose the large wavy, and Ross’s goose the small wavy. The larger snow goose is common in Alaska. They do not: breed in the neighborhood of the Yukon, but proceed further north to rear their young. The fall migration takes place in September, and by the end of that month all the snow geese are gone. In summer they proceed as far south as Texas and Cuba, where they are re- ported as abundant. As already remarked, snow geese are seen every win- ter in the mouth of the Delaware, and also on the coast of North Carolina, about Currituck Sound. The spectacle of a flock of these white geese flying is a very beautiful one. Sometimes they perform remark- able evolutions on the wing, and if seen at a distance look like so many snowflakes being whirled hither and thither by the wind. Scarcely less beautiful is the sight which may often be seen in the Rocky Mountain region during the migration. As one rides along under the watm October sun he may have his attention attracted by sweet, faint, distant sounds, interrupted at first, and then gradually coming nearer and clearer, yet still only a murmur ; the rider hears it from above, before, behind 50 DUCK SHOOTING. and all around, faintly sweet and musically discordant, always softened by distance, like the sound of far-off harps, of sweet bells jangled, of the distant baying of mellow-voiced hounds. Looking up into the sky above him he sees the serene blue far on high, flecked with tiny white moving shapes, which seem like snowflakes drifting lazily across the azure sky ; and down to earth, falling, falling, falling, come the musical cries of the little wavies that are journeying toward the south land. They pass, and slowly the sounds grow faint and fainter, and the listener thinks involuntarily of the well- known lines: Oh, hark, oh, hear! how thin and clear, And thinner, clearer, farther going! Oh, sweet and far from cliff and scar The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! These birds and Ross’s geese often stop to rest and feed on the Montana plains during their migration. I have more than once killed them with a rifle at St. Mary’s Lake in the late autumn, and have started them from the little prairie pools, where they were feeding on a small farinaceous tuber, which is the root of some water plant. ROSS'S “GOOSE. Chen ross (CASSIN ). In color the plumage of the little Ross’s goose is precisely similar both in adult and young to that of the larger snow geese; that is, pure white, except for the primaries, which are black, becoming ash color at the base. The bill and feet are red; the nail white. The base of the bill is usually covered with wart-like ex- crescences, or is wrinkled and roughened. There is great difference in the bills, no two being just alike. The young are white, tinged with gray, the centre of the feathers often being dark colored. Ross’s goose is the smallest of our geese, being about 51 52 DUCK SHOOTING. the size of the mallard duck, and weighing from two and a half to three pounds. At a distance it is hard to distinguish it from the snow goose, but the voice is shriller, and the birds rise on the wing more readily than most of the geese, springing into the air and going upward more like mallards or black ducks than like geese. The range of this goose is given in the books as Arctic America in summer, and the Pacific coast to Southern California in winter; but, as a matter of fact, not very much is known about it. It has been taken quite frequently in California in winter, but is nowhere abundant. In Northwestern Montana it is a common fall mi- grant, coming rather later than the snow goose, and being abundant on the heads of Milk River, Cutbank and Two Medicine Lodge creeks through October and the first half of November. A few years ago Mr. Jos. Kipp captured there and partially domesticated no less than nine of these birds, but unfortunately, before the winter was over, all of them were killed by dogs. Dr. J. C. Merrill tells us that this goose is not uncommon in the vicinity of Fort Missoula, and Captain Bendire has taken it in Eastern Oregon in the spring. It is not a bird that is likely to be met with by sportsmen except in the localities referred to, and there it is usually shot by being approached under cover. I have seen it there in flocks of from seventy-five to one hundred, and have known of sixteen birds falling to the two discharges of a double-barreled gun. The flesh of those that I have eaten was delicious. ati ( i | i fF | 4 a sas | i ni Sia ay il i | ff 7 ale i i att WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. Anser albifrons (GMEL.). In the genus Anser the bill is much less stout than in Chen, and the nail, which terminates it, is thinner and less strong. The present species is generally grayish- brown in color, the feathers immediately about the bill being in adults white, bordered behind by dark brown. The head and neck are grayish-brown, darkest on crown of head and back of neck. The body is grayish, many of the feathers being tipped with white. The primaries are black, the rump slate-brown, the upper and under tail coverts white, and the tail grayish-brown margined with white. The under parts are grayish, variously, often heavily, blotched with blackish-brown; 53 cv DUCK SHOOTING. bill, legs and feet, pinkish; the nail of the bill white; length, 28 inches; wing, over 15. The young closely re- sembles the adult, but lacks the white about the bill, this part being dark brown; it has no black blotches on the lower parts. The nail of the bill is blackish. The white-fronted goose is found in the northern parts of both the Old and the New World, though the two forms are separated by many ornithologists and made different races. The American bird is slightly larger than that of Europe, but the difference is small, and size is the only distinction. At all events, for the purposes of the gunner, they may be considered a single species. The white-fronted goose is generally distrib- uted throughout this country from the far north to our southern border, but is rare on the Atlantic coast. A specimen was taken recently in Currituck Sound. N. C., but none of the local gunners, knew what it was. The species occurs in Cuba as well as in Greenland. In all the Mississippi Valley region it is abundant during the migrations, where it is known as laughing goose, speckled belly, harlequin brant, pied brant, prairie brant, and often simply as brant. It is abundant also in California, and occurs in large numbers as far south as Southern California. In summer the white- fronted goose is found in Alaska, where some breed, and in great numbers on the islands of the Arctic Ocean. All northern explorers report it as abundant on the Mackenzie and throughout the country bordering the Barren Lands. In America it appears to be gen- erally a bird of western distribution. WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 55 The white-fronted goose feeds largely on grass, and in former times did much damage to the young crops of wheat on the western coast during its migrations. It is said to feed also on berries, and to be seldom seen on the water except at night or when molting. The southward migration is undertaken late in September, and the flocks of white-fronted geese usually make their appearance on the western prairies early in October, when they are often associated with snow geese, in company with which they feed and journey to and from their feeding grounds. The flesh of the white-fronted goose is highly es- teemed, and is spoken of as being more delicate than that of any other goose, except possibly the young of the salt water brant. The nest of the white-fronted goose is usually built on the low ground, near fresh water ponds or marshes, and the six or eight yellowish-white eggs are commonly covered with down when the mother leaves them. CANADA GOOSE. Branta canadensis (LINN.). Of all the so-called gray geese, the most common and best known is the Canada goose. Of this there are four different forms—the Canada goose, Branta canaden- sis; Hutchins’s goose, Branta canadensis hutchinsii; white-cheeked goose, Branta canadensis occidentalis; and cackling goose, Branta canadensis minima. Of these the common wild goose and Hutchins’s goose are distributed over the whole United States, the latter being chiefly western in its distribution, while the white-cheeked or western goose and the cackling goose are exclusively western, although the last named oc- casionally occurs in the Mississippi Valley. 56 CANADA GOOSE. WE I : il 4! {, i Tae SR RTTTIET PAT ore ue ry iors ; (le A UHHH AA ee OG EEN } oo tlt UDA ew . LUT Kduuin Shepparel- By SAN EN LUN ACEO esa ts ~ Bowe” sas HUTCHINS’S GOOSE. 57 W HITE-CHEEKED GOOSE. 58 DUCK SHOOTING. The Canada goose has a triangular white patch on each cheek, the two meeting under the throat, though rarely they are separated by a black line. The head, neck, wing quills, rump and tail are black; the lower belly, upper and under tail coverts white; the upper parts are dark grayish-brown, the feathers with paler tips, and the lower parts are gray, fading gradually into the white of the belly. The tail feathers number from eighteen to twenty. The bird’s length is from 36 to 40 inches, wing 18. The young are similar to the adult, but the white cheek patches are sometimes marked with black, and the black of the neck fades gradually into the grayish of the breast. Branta canadensis hutchinsii (R1cu.). Hutchins’s goose exactly resembles the Canada goose in color, but is smaller, and has fourteen or sixteen tail feathers. The length of Hutchins’s goose is about 30 inches, wing 16 inches or over. Branta canadensis occidentalis (BatRD). The western goose closely resembles the Canada goose, although it is slightly smaller. At the base of the black neck there is a distinct white collar running around the neck, and separating the black from the gray and brown of the body. ‘This white collar,’ Mr. CANADA GOOSE. 59 ALS MMi lly ANN hi %) ih i iy Hi ins CACKLING GOOSE. Ridgway writes me, “is a seasonal character, and may occur in all the sub-species. It fades out in summer and reappears with the fresh molt in autumn. Of this fact I had proof in a domesticated Hutchins’s goose which my father had for some eight or ten years.” The back and wings are slightly paler than in the Canada goose, while the feathers of the breast are perhaps a little darker. The tail feathers are 18 to 20, as in the Can- ada goose; the bird’s length is from 33 to 36 inches, wing 18 inches or less. This sub-species is also called the white-cheeked goose. Branta canadensis minima Ripew. The cackling goose bears the same relation to the western goose that Hutchins’s does to the Canada goose, except that the difference in size is much greater. 60 DUCK SHOOTING. The tail feathers are 14 to 16; the length of the bird is about 24 inches; wing about 14 inches. The coloring is almost exactly that of the western goose. Of these four forms, the Canada goose is the only one of general distribution throughout North America. It is found from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mex- ico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and during the migrations is abundant in New England, as well as over the more sparsely settled parts of the country. On the Pacific coast it is less common than the western goose, but inland it is found in numbers. The common wild goose is an early migrant, and often passes North while the waters are still sealed in their icy fetters. Soon after its arrival in the North, however, the water becomes open, and the birds mate and separate to select their summer homes. The six or eight eggs are laid in nests, sometimes in the marshes, sometimes on higher land, not far from water, and again on the broken-off stubs of trees, or even in a nest among the branches, high above the ground. The eggs are ivory white, and are carefully brooded by the mother bird. Early in June the young are hatched and taken to the water. Usually they are accompanied by both parents, and at this time, if danger approaches, they follow the mother in a long line, imitating her movements, sinking lower and lower in the water as she sinks in her attempt to hide, and finally diving and scattering under the water when she dives. Soon after the young birds appear the old ones begin to molt, and CANADA GOOSE. 61 this is a period of danger for them, many being killed at this time by the Eskimo and the Indians. All along the Missouri River and its tributaries, and by lakes scattered over the great plains, the Canada goose formerly bred in considerable numbers, and twenty years ago broods of these birds were commonly seen during the summer along these rivers and upon the prairies near these little lakes. The settlement of the western country, however, has made such breeding places no longer available, and the geese are therefore obliged to journey further to the North before rearing their young. The wild goose is readily domesticated, and this fact is taken advantage of by gunners, who capture crippled birds, keep them until cured, and subsequently use them as decoys to draw the passing flocks within gun-shot of their places of concealment. Not infrequently the geese breed in confinement, though it is probable this does not take place until the females are three years old. Sometimes such domesticated geese, when tethered out as decoys, escape and swim off to join flocks of wild geese, but as the tame ones commonly cannot fly, they are left behind by the flocks when these move away, and frequently turn about and make their way back to the place where their fellow captives are confined. A case of this sort came under my notice in Currituck Sound in the winter of 1900, when an old gander be- longing to the Narrows Island Club, that had slipped his loops and gotten away, made his way back, after three weeks of freedom, nearly to the goose pen where 62 DUCK SHOOTING. the rest of the stand were kept. The superintendent of the club had heard the goose calling for several days and recognized his voice, and after considerable search found him in one of the little leads in the island. The flight of the wild goose is firm, swift and steady. The birds commonly fly in a V or triangle, though sometimes they spread out into a great crescent whose convexity is directed forward. The alertness and wariness of this bird have become proverbial, and when at rest, either on the land or water, it is particularly watchful and difficult of ap- proach. Geese are exceedingly gregarious, and where a flock is resting on the water all birds passing near them are likely to lower their flight, and after making one or two circles in the air, to join the resting birds. For this reason, when flying alone or in companies of two or three, the goose may often be called up to wooden decoys by an imitation of its cry. Where geese are abundant it is exceedingly common for the gunners to call such single birds to within gunshot. In windy weather the geese, when their flight obliges them to face the gale, fly low, and often barely top the reeds of the marshes among which they are wintering. In foggy weather, or when snow is falling, they also fly low, keeping close to the water, apparently looking for a place in which to alight.. At such times they come to decoys with especial readiness. Sometimes in foggy weather, when flying over the land, they seem to be- come confused and fly about in circles, as if they had quite lost their way. ‘9}8[q S,uognpny wo1y pasonpay SSE OKGL BLOM TSE STIL CANADA GOOSE. 63 Hutchins’s goose, though so like the Canada goose in coloring, differs from it in habits. Its breeding place is further to the North, and is on the coast near the salt water. There their nests are usually constructed in marshes near the sea, but Audubon quotes Captain Ross as stating that they sometimes breed on ledges of the cliffs. In winter this species is found in California and in Texas; and on the Pacific coast great numbers are killed from blinds, and also from behind domestic animals, trained to approach them gradually, as if feed- ing. Hutchins’s goose is common in Alaska, and is re- ported there by all the explorers. Mr. Macfarlane found them also breeding on the shores and islands of the Arctic Sea. Whether Hutchins’s goose is found at all on the North Atlantic coast appears to be an unsettled ques- tion. The books and the gunners alike state that it used to be found there, but if it occurs at present it is very unusual. Like the Canada goose, Hutchins’s goose some- times has its nest in trees. A case of this kind is cited by Dr. Brewer, who states that in one instance four eggs of this species were found in the deserted nest of a crow or hawk, built on the fork of a pine tree and at a height of nine feet. The parent bird was shot on the nest. Besides the ordinary book names applied to this species, Mr. Gurdon Trumbull, in his admirable “Names and Portraits of Birds,” quotes Eskimo goose, mud goose, goose brant, marsh goose and prairie goose, 64 DUCK SHOOTING. as well as the general term, brant, which is commonly applied to all the smaller geese. Mr. Elliot says that among the Aleutians this bird is called the tundrina goose. The habits of the cackling goose do not appear to differ at all from those of the Canada goose, but its range is a very narrow one, being restricted during the summer to the Bering seacoast of Alaska, its principal breeding place being the shores of Norton Sound. It does not occur during the breeding season anywhere south of the Alaska Peninsula, the breeding birds from Cook’s Inlet southward being the white-cheeked goose. During migration it extends along the Pacific coast as far as California, but the birds seen in summer along the inlets of the British Columbia and Alaska coast are not this species, but the white-cheeked goose. It reaches California in its southward migration about the middle of October, and departs again for the North in April. AYS BARNACLE GOOSE. Branta leucopsis (BEcust.). Another species of this group is the barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis), which is entitled to mention here only to complete the list of our wildfowl. It is a strag- gler from Europe, where it is very common. No doubt it regularly occurs in Greenland. A specimen has been taken near Rupert House, at the southern end of Hud- son’s Bay, and others in Nova Scotia, on Long Island and in Currituck Sound, in North Carolina. It is nota bird likely to be met with by the sportsmen, and yet, if met with it should at once be reported, since every in- stance of its capture is of interest. It is a small bird, only a little larger than a brant, and may be known by 65 66 - DUCK SHOOTING. its having almost the whole head white. The lores— that is to say, the space between the eye and the bill— the back of head, neck and breast, are black; the wings and back are gray, the feathers being tipped by a black bar and margined with white. The under parts are pale grayish; the bill, feet and legs black. The young have the white cheek patches dotted with black, and the feathers of the back tipped with reddish-brown. It seems noteworthy that the few specimens of this bird taken in America differ from specimens from Eu- rope, in being somewhat paler. The barnacle goose breeds in great numbers in Si- beria and Spitzbergen, and it is found in winter in great numbers on the west coast of Great Britain and the north coast of Ireland. In some places in England the barnacle goose has been to some extent domesticated, and has bred in captivity. Branta bernicla (LINN.). Two species of brant, known as the brant or brant goose (Branta bermicla), and the black brant (Branta migricans ), occupy respectively the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of America. Both are salt water birds, and, as a rule, do not venture inland. They are found almost exclusively on tide waters, although stragglers have oc- casionally been taken in the Mississippi Valley. The common brant of the Atlantic coast is common to the Old and the New World. Both these species are small geese, but little larger than Ross’s goose, which, as already stated, is about the size of a mallard duck. 67 68 DUCK SHOOTING. The common brant has the head, neck, breast and fore back black, with narrow touches of white on either side of the neck, just below the head. The upper parts are brownish-gray, much as in the Canada goose, but each feather is narrowly margined with grayish. The under parts are grayish-white, fading into pure white on the belly, the upper and under tail coverts being also white. The middle of the rump and the quill feathers of the wing are blackish. The tail is black, as are the bill, legs and feet. The young is not noticeably different, except that the white touches on the neck are likely to be absent, and white bars cross the wing, formed by the white tips of the secondary feathers. , WY Wy, Wii iy Hino THUY hy Nines Tey Wy Wy) Wi Wy Yi yy iif Wi W) Wi ey Uy “iy, Py Wy i a We lj OY, Siti) We MY Le HY ae Ee P Wy My) ii Me Y i) TU MW y YY Uy WL) & BLACK BRANT. Branta nigricans (Lawre.). The black brant is like its eastern relative, but instead of having the faint white neck touches, it has a broad white collar about its neck, which, however, does not quite meet behind. The general color of this bird is much darker than that of its eastern relative. The upper parts, wings and under parts are dark brown, in sharp contrast to the white belly and upper and under tail coverts. The length is about 25 inches, and the wing 12 I-2 inches. The brant goes to the far North to breed, and its nest was long unknown. Captain Fielden found the nest 69 70 DUCK SHOOTING. and eggs in latitude 82 degrees 33 minutes north, and subsequently many others in the same neighbor- hood. These nests were on the beach, near the water. In Greenland Dr. Walker, who found this species near Godthaab, as well as in the mouth of Bellot’s Straits, saw nests built in the cliffs which formed the sides of the strait. On the European side of the water the bird has been found breeding in great numbers at Spitz- bergen, where the ground was sometimes covered with its nests. During its migrations the brant appears on the New England coast in October or November, and is found from there south along the Atlantic as far as South Carolina. Its favorite wintering grounds seem to be the coasts of Virginia and North and South Carolina, where it remains in great flocks all winter, unless driven further southward by extremely severe weather. It is a gentle, unsuspicious bird, and is readily decoyed. On the Massachusetts coast it is killed chiefly in spring on the sand bars, to which it resorts for the purpose of sanding. In its more southern haunts it 1s commonly shot from a battery or a bush blind. Brant do not dive for their food, but feed in the same way as do geese, ducks and other shoal water wildfowl, by stretching the long neck down to the bottom and pulling up the grass that grows there. It is thus evi- dent that they can only feed at certain stages of the tide. Brant are not uncommon in captivity, and are used in New England as decoys on the sand bars. The BLACK BRANT. m1 flocks of migrating birds rarely come up to the land or to points of marsh where there is any opportunity for concealment, and thus few are shot from the shore, ex- cept on the bars. The range of the black brant has already been given. Two or three specimens have been taken on the Atlantic coast, but these were merely stragglers. On the Pacific coast in winter it is found on salt water bays and estu- aries, from the straits of Fuca south to San Diego. They make their appearance in October, and leave again in April. Black brant appear to be very little shot, notwith- standing their great numbers. On their northward migration they usually proceed in small flocks of from twenty to fifty, but at times collect in such immense numbers that great quantities of them are killed. This is especially true if the birds have to wait near the edge of the ice for the northern waters, which they are seek- ing, to become open. The black brant breeds near the Arctic Ocean. Mr. Macfarlane found their nests on little islands in fresh water ponds or in rivers, and saw many others on the shores or on islands in Franklin Bay. The number of eggs in a nest was usually five. In its migration this species follows the Alaskan coast, over the Bering Sea, passing outside of St. Michael’s Island, proceeding to Stewart’s Island, and thence northward across the open sea to Golofin Sound. They are found in Norton Sound by the middle of May, and breed in this neighborhood in great numbers. H) ¥! jel fy Mie g Le UY Yee s eye aut WY « OSM OW 4s =p Wy EMPEROR GOOSE. Philacte canagica (SEVAST.). The emperor is one of the handsomest of the Ameri- can geese. It is a bird of very limited distribution, being confined to the Bering Sea and its vicinity, though very rarely specimens straggle southward in winter along the Pacific coast of the United States as far as California. The emperor goose may be known from all the other North American geese by the re- markable form of its bill; this is extremely short, with a very broad and thick nail, which occupies almost one- third of the length. The tarsus, or naked portion of the leg, between the toes and the joint above, is very short in proportion to the toes. 72 EMPEROR GOOSE. 73 In the adult emperor goose the head and back of the neck are white; the front and sides of the throat and neck are brownish-black, slightly spotted with white; the tail is slate-color at the base and white at the end; the rest of the plumage is bluish, each feather having at its end a narrow bar of white, bordered by a crescent- shaped black marking. The secondary feathers of the wing are slaty-black, margined with white; the long quills black. The bill is bluish or purplish; the nail white, darker at the edges, and the legs and feet bright yellow. The young are similar to the adult, but have the head and neck lead color, sometimes sprinkled with white. All the explorers of Alaska have found this species more or less abundant in that territory. It also occurs on some of the islands of the Bering Sea, as well as on the Commander Islands, on the Siberian coast. Mr. H. W. Elliot tells us that flocks sometimes land on the Pribilof Islands in an exhausted condition, so that the natives run them down on the grass, the birds being unable to fly. Mr. Dall speaks of the exceedingly strong odor of garlic proceeding from the raw flesh and skin, and says that this odor makes the work of skin- ning the birds very disagreeable. With cooking, the smell disappears. The emperor geese breed on the flat, marshy islands of the Alaskan coast, the nest sometimes being placed amid the driftwood, even below high-water mark. Like most other geese, the female covers the eggs with down from her breast, 74 DUCK SHOOTING. When the molting season begins the Eskimo kill these geese in common with others, capturing them by means of nets set on the marshes, into which the molt- ing birds are driven. At this time the destruction of the birds is very great. This species in Norton Sound is called white-headed goose, while the name applied to it by the Russians is sa-sar-ka, meaning guinea hen, evidently from the col- oring of the plumage. TTREE DUCKS. Intermediate between the true geese and the ducks are the so-called tree ducks, belonging to the genus Dendrocygna. Of these, two species are found along our southern border, and occasionally afford some sport to gunners. They are rather duck-like in form, but have very large heads and feet, the tarsus being reticu- late instead of scutellate, like the ducks. In other words, the skin of the tarsus is covered by small scales, looking like a network, instead of by broad, deep scales which overlap in front. This, it will be remembered, is a character of the geese (Anserine). Moreover, the tarsus in the tree ducks is equal to or longer than the middle toe, instead of being shorter than it. The lower part of the thigh is naked, and the hind toe is extremely long. This group appears to have relationship with the Old World sheldrakes, and with the goose-like genus Chenalopex, rather than with either the ducks or the geese. They are birds of tropical distribution, and in the United States are found only along the southern border. One species is common in the West India Isl- ands. None of them, however, is sufficiently abun- dant to be considered as furnishing gunning, but two of the three species belong in the list of our water fowl. i BLACK-BELLIED TREE DUCK. Dendrocygna autumnalis (LINN.). The neck, back and breast are cinnamon-brown, the forehead somewhat paler. Sides of head, throat and upper neck yellowish-gray. At the back of the head a black strip begins, which runs down the back of the neck. The middle of the back, rump, upper tail coverts, belly, flanks and under wing coverts are black ; the wing coverts are yellowish, fading into ashy and grayish- white on the greater coverts. When it is closed the wing thus shows a white strip for nearly its whole length. The tail is blackish-brown, and the under parts 76 BLACK-BELLIED TREE DUCK. FL. yellowish-brown. The under tail coverts are white; the bill is red, changing to orange at the base; its nail is bluish; legs and feet whitish. The young bird re- sembles the adult, but its colors are duller throughout, and it lacks the black flanks and belly ; they are grayish- white, barred with dusky ; length, 19 inches; wing 9 1-2 inches. In certain parts of Texas the black-bellied tree duck is not a scarce bird. It is found there in summer and autumn, and at this time of the year visits the grain fields, where some shooting at them may sometimes be had. Its name is well applied, for it perches in the trees without difficulty, and walks about on the branches as if much at home. In fact, it is said to pass the hours of daylight largely in the branches of trees, and to do its feeding and traveling chiefly at night. This duck nests in the hollow trees, and there deposits twelve to fifteen eggs, without forming any nest. When hatched the young are said to be carried to the water in the mother’s bill. It is easily domesticated, and when once tamed asso- ciates with the fowls of the farm on perfectly good terms. When tamed it is said to be very watchful, and to utter a shrill call at the approach of any individual or at any unusual sound. In Texas, where the bird is most common, it is known as the tree duck, corn field or long-legged duck, while in Louisiana the common appellation for it is fiddler duck, from the clear call-note that it utters at night when in flight. It frequents the old corn fields 78 DUCK SHOOTING. which have been overflowed, and from such places it may be started in pairs, often giving good shooting. Its flesh is highly esteemed. Some of the local names used in South America and in Mexico are applied to it by reason of its call-note. Mr. Xantus took a single specimen of this duck at Fort Tejon, in Southern California, but this is the only specimen known from that State. In Mexico and Cen- tral America they are common. Dr. Merrill states that these birds reach Fort Brown, Texas, from the South in April. Most of them depart again in September or October, but some stay until November. Nein Ti = == SSS SSSR SS SS=: = FULVOUS-BELLIED TREE DUCK. Dendrocygna fulva (GMEL.). The brown tree duck is a more northerly species than the preceding, and is found in Mexico and northward through parts of California and Nevada, as well as in Texas and Louisiana. The head, neck and lower parts are deep reddish-yellow, darkest on top of head, and changing to reddish on the flanks, the longer feathers being streaked with pale yellow ; middle of neck whitish obscurely streaked with black. A distinct black stripe runs from the head down the hind part of the neck. The upper parts are brownish-black, the feathers of the wing being tipped with chestnut. The upper tail cov- 79 80 DUCK SHOOTING. erts are white; the belly and lower tail coverts yellow- ish-white ; the bill is blackish, and the feet and legs are slate-blue; the length is about 20 inches; wing, 9 1-2 inches. The colors of the young are somewhat duller, and the wing coverts lack the chestnut. The fulvous tree duck, known as the yellow-bellied fiddler in Louisiana, and the long-legged duck in Texas, is quite common there at certain seasons. Its habits do not vary greatly from those of the black-bellied tree duck. Like that species, it spends much of its'time in fresh water lakes and sloughs, feeding on the grasses that grow there, and it also visits the corn fields at night in search of grain. The flesh of both these species is said to be very de- licious, and is eagerly sought after.* The birds are shot only by being stumbled on or by lying in wait for them as they come into or leave the corn fields. This duck is exceedingly unsuspicious and readily permits approach, so that many of them are killed. When crippled, however, their strong legs enable them to run very fast, and, like all ducks, they are expert hiders, getting into the grass and lying there without moving. The bird is also a good diver, and if it reaches the water is not likely to be captured. It is said never to be found on the salt water, but confines itself entirely to inland pools, rivers and swamps. | *On this point compare Robert Erskine Ross in “California Duck Notes,” Forest and Stream, July 26, 1902, THE TRUE DUCKS, The ducks may always be distinguished from their relatives, the geese, by characters already indicated. The tarsus, that is to say, the naked portion of the leg, between the joint where the feathers end and that where the toes begin, is covered in front by broad, overlapping scales, instead of by a naked skin, orna- mented with small hexagonal scales. The ducks are usually smaller than the geese. They are also, as a rule, more highly colored, though this brilliancy pre- vails more in the males of the fresh-water ducks than in the sea ducks. Nevertheless, this is not the invari- able rule, for the males of all the mergansers, and such species of sea ducks as the eiders, the harlequin, the butter-ball and long-tailed duck are extremely showy and beautiful birds. As a rule the ducks have shorter necks and legs than the geese. It has long been known to naturalists and to a few gunners that in the mallard and some other ducks the males assume during the summer a plumage very dif- ferent from that which they commonly wear during the autumn, winter and spring, and not unlike that of the female. This is not generally known, and even by ornithologists has not always been understood. Re- cently, however, in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, for the last quarter of 81 82 DUCK SHOOTING. 1899, Mr. Witmer Stone, in a paper entitled “The Summer Molting Plumage of Certain Ducks,” has dis- cussed the subject in a very suggestive way. Mr. Stone calls attention to the fact that in only one of our ducks—the old squaw—does the adult male pos- sess a distinct winter plumage which is different from the breeding dress, that the old males of all our other ducks remain in the same plumage from the time they arrive in autumn till their departure northward in spring, and intimates that, judging by analogy, we should suppose that since these ducks show no tendency toward a change of plumage when they leave us in the spring, they must retain the same feathers that covered them during the winter until the end of the breeding season, when a complete molt should occur and a new dress be assumed exactly like the one just shed. It is known, however, that this is not the fact, and, as stated, the “plumage after the breeding season’ has been described in some species. The first record of this peculiar summer plumage in the male ducks is found in the supplement to Montagu’s “Ornithological Dictionary,” 1813, under the head of ‘The Pintail (Dafila acuta). The observations made on some do- mesticated birds are given as follows: “In the month of June or beginning of July these birds commenced their change of plumage, and by degrees after making a sin- gular mottled appearance, especially on the part of the body which was white before, became by the first week in August entirely of a brown color. The beautiful bronze on the head, the white streak on each side of the THE TRUE DUCKS. 83 neck, and all the white beneath, as well as the elegant scapulars, had entirely vanished, and to all appearance a sexual metamorphosis had taken place. But this change was of short duration, for about the latter end of September one of the males began to assume the masculine attire * * * and by the middle of Oc- tober this bird was again in full plumage.” Twenty-five years later the naturalist Waterton de- scribed a similar molt in the male mallard, and as time went on, other species were found to undergo like changes. In Mr. Ridgway’s “Manual of North Ameri- can Birds,” a number of species are given as having a peculiar summer plumage resembling the female. Such are the mallard, blue-wing and cinnamon teal, the gad- wall, widgeon, pintail and scaup. On the whole, how- ever, very little is said in the books about this change. Mr. Stone’s examination of four species of eider ducks brought back from the Arctic by Mr. E. A. Mc- Ilhenny, and taken near Point Barrow, in the late sum- mer or early autumn, leads Mr. Stone to believe that in all ducks where the plumages of the male and female are markedly different we may expect to find this double molt and a dull summer plumage in the male. He points out that this summer plumage is in no sense a nuptial dress, and that while it may begin to appear before the young birds are hatched, it is not seen until after the mating season is over, and is distinctly a post- nuptial dress. The change is chiefly restricted to the head, neck, breast and scapulars; in other words, to those parts which are most conspicuously colored. 84 DUCK SHOOTING. A very important point in connection with this sum- mer plumage is that the annual molt of the flight feath- ers does not begin until it has been fully acquired, and that as soon as the new flight feathers have become strong enough to be used, the dull plumage, as well as the remainder of the old plumage, is lost, the molt of the body feathers proceeding in the usual way. In other words, this dull plumage lasts only during the period while the birds are unable to fly, for, as is well under- stood, ducks molt the quill feathers of their wings all at once, and for a time lose the power of flight. Now at such a time a dull plumage would naturally be useful in rendering the bird inconspicuous, and thereby protect- ing it, and Mr. Stone believes this to be the explanation of this curious summer molt. He adds that the feath- ers of this plumage are very poor and loosely con- structed, like the “first” plumage of young birds, which is only a temporary summer dress. Mr. Stone quotes European authors who have de- scribed eider ducks of different species in this dress, but have called them young males, evidently not appreciat- ing the meaning of the change. He then goes on to describe in detail this summer plumage in four species of Pacific eiders and in the red-breasted merganser, from which it appears that up to July the nuptial dress of the male is usually retained, but that by the latter part of August and in early September this “summer molting plumage,” as Mr. Stone calls it, is fully as- sumed. NON-DIVING DUCKS. SUB-FAMILY Anatine. As has already been said, the ducks are divided into three sub-families. Of these the first is the Anatine, or fresh-water ducks. One unvarying character of this group is that it has the hind toe simple, while in all the sea or diving ducks it is lobed, or provided with a loose membrane or flap. The feet of the fresh- water ducks, as a rule, are smaller than those of the sea ducks, formed more for progression on land than for swimming. The fresh-water ducks feed in shallow water, gathering their food from the bottom by stretching down the neck, or by tipping up the body, as do also the geese and the swans. They do not dive for food, though they often do so to escape from dan- ger when wounded. Asa rule they feed on vegetable matter, from which it results that their flesh is very palatable. As it is a fact, however, that all ducks are indiscriminate feeders, in cases where the fresh-water ducks have access to animal food their flesh readily acquires an unpleasant, fishy taste. There are thirteen or fourteen species of fresh-water ducks found in North America, most of which are familiar to gunners. Naturalists are by no means agreed as to the proper no- menclature to be applied to the different species in this 85 86 DUCK SHOOTING. group, but for the purposes of this work it will be suf- ficient to take that adopted by the American Ornitholo- gists’ Union in its revised Check List of North Ameri- can Birds. It is to be noted, however, that the order in which the species are arranged is not that of the Check List. WA Ay i he ie iy Hah j eth Nai " onde a lif Ui Me = Ok mye it il ee we Ap MALLARD. Anas boschas Linn. In autumn, winter and spring the colors of the mal- lard are those of the common domestic duck, which is its descendant. The head and neck are brilliant metal- lic green, sometimes showing golden and purple reflec- tions, according to the light’s reflection. About the neck, below this green, is a narrow ring of white, usu- ally broken at the back. The back is brown, or brown- ish-gray, finely waved with grayish-white, as are the inner scapular feathers, which darken to rich brown on the wing. The speculum, or wing patch, is violet, with metallic reflections, crossed near the end with a black bar, and tipped with a white one. The rump and 87 88 DUCK SHOOTING. upper tail-coverts are black, and the tail white, each feather being grayish along the shaft. The breast is deep glossy chestnut, and the other under parts gray, waved with narrow black lines. The under tail-cov- erts are black. The bill is yellow-green, with a black nail, the eyes dark brown and the feet orange. The length is about 2 feet and the wing from II to I2 inches. ‘The summer dress of the male closely resem- bles that of the female, but is darker. This plumage is assumed in June and is lost again in August, when the winter dress is resumed. The female is colored much as the female of the tame duck; the feathers generally are dusky, with broad, pale yellow or buff edges. On the upper parts the dark color predominates; on the lower, the buff, often almost to the exclusion of the blackish streaks. The wing patch is colored as in the male, as are the bill, feet and legs. The chin is almost white and the throat is buff. No one of our ducks has a wider range than the mallard, which, as has been said, is the progenitor of the common domestic duck. It is found over the en- tire northern portion of the world; and, in America, as far south as Mexico, while in Europe it breeds in Southern Spain and Greece. It is believed to be com- mon throughout Asia, except in tropical India, and it is more or less abundant in Northern Africa. AI- though a migratory bird, the mallard may usually be found throughout its range in winter, provided there iS open water, and so a place where it may feed. In MALLARD. 89 many places in the Northern Rocky Mountains, where the thermometer often goes to 30 or 40 degrees below zero, mallards may be found throughout the winter living in warm springs or along swift streams, where the current is so rapid that the water never freezes. Thus it is seen that the winter’s cold has little to do with the migration of the mallard—or, in fact, with that of many other ducks—and that, if food is plenty, the birds can bear almost any degree of cold. It is the freezing of the waters and thus the shutting off of the food supply that forces these inland birds to move southward. In the New England States the mallard is not a common bird, but in the Southern States, the interior and California it is extremely abundant. In the northern interior the mallard is shot from early October until the waters close in November, and all through the winter it is abundant in the Southern States. Here it feeds in the marshes along the salt water, in the rice fields and along the sloughs and streains throughout the interior, and becomes fat and well flavored and is eagerly pursued. It comes readily to decoys and if one or more live ducks are tethered with the decoys to call down the wild birds, they are quite certain to respond and to offer easy shooting to the gunner. Formerly the mallard bred in consid- erable numbers within the limits of the United States, though it has never been a common bird at any season on the Atlantic coast north of New York. Yet it used to breed in great numbers in Illinois, Indiana, go DUCK SHOOTING. Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota, as well as in the prairies of the further West and about alkaline lakes and pools on the high central plateau. Now, most of the birds proceed further north to breed, and Canada, the Hudson’s Bay country and the shores of the Arctic Sea are all occupied by it during the nesting season. Dr. Brewer states that “it has been known in rare instances to nest in a tree, in such cases occupying a deserted nest of a hawk, crow or other large bird.” The mallard is one of our typical fresh-water ducks. It is rarely or never found on salt water, but, on the other hand, is common on the lagoons along the south- ern Atlantic coast which are brackish. Here it asso- ciates with many other fresh-water ducks and is fre- quently seen flying in company with black ducks, sprig- tails, widgeons and other species. The mallard rises from the water by a single spring, almost straight up in the air, and then flies upward at a sharp angle, until it has reached a height of thirty or forty feet, when it flies rapidly away. Its speed on the wing! is considerable and when coming before the wind it is necessary for the gunner to make consid- erable allowance to hit it. When the mallard rises on the water it usually utters several loud quacks of alarm, and when associated in companies, as it usually is, the birds keep up a more or less continuous conversation. When flying, its attention is readily attracted by an imitation of its note, and this call, made either with the mouth or with an instrument known as a duck call, is often used to lead it to observe the decoys. If it MALLARD. 91 can be made to see these, it is extremely likely to come to them. This species readily hybridizes with certain other ducks. A hybrid supposed to be mallard and muscovy duck is common. So also is one between the mallard and the black duck, and of these I have killed a num- ber. They bear a general resemblance to the black duck, but the head and neck are much darker and show glossy reflections. Moreover, the crissum or anal re- gion is jet black, as are the upper tail-coverts, and the male is likely to possess the recurved tail feathers which characterize the mallard drake. Many years ago, in Carbon county, Wyoming, I killed a male hybrid between the mallard and pintail. In form it resembles the male pintail, but its head is blackish green, with metallic reflections, almost the color of the male shoveller. Its breast is chestnut and its back much like that of a mallard. The general effect is that of a male pintail with mallard coloring. Perhaps no one of our North American ducks is so well known as the mallard, and yet it has compara- tively few common names. It is called greenhead, wild drake, wild duck, English duck, French duck and gray duck, or sometimes gray mallard for the female. In Canada the name stock duck was formerly common, referring evidently to this bird as a progenitor of the domestic duck. The French Canadians call it canard Francais or French duck. Mr. Trumbull calls atten- tion to the old but now obsolete duckinmallard, a word supposed to be a corruption of duck and mallard, duck 92 DUCK SHOOTING. being the female and mallard the male. The word is thus the equivalent of duck and drake, it having been the custom, seemingly, to speak of the species by this double name. ON a fh; (} ) y) He CIPS EA AYA (Y I) > =| =F - SS “Ewa Shepp ) BLACK DUCK OR’ DUSKY DUCK ‘Anas obscura GMEL. Under the general name “black duck” are included two species and one sub-species so closely alike that only a careful comparison will distinguish them. They are birds similar in size and form to the mal- lard, but very different in color. The black duck is brownish-black or dusky, all the feathers edged with pale grayish or yellowish. The head and neck are streaked with yellowish. Of this there is least on the top of the head and the hind neck, which are sometimes nearly black; most on the sides of head and throat. 93 94 DUCK SHOOTING. These last are sometimes almost buff, without any streaking. The speculum, or iridescent wing patch, is sometimes metallic-green and sometimes violet, edged with black. The bill is yellowish-green and the nail dark, while the feet are orange-red, the webs dusky. Length, 22 inches; wing, 11. The sexes are essentially alike. Since the first edition of this book was published, Mr. William Brewster has described (Auk xix, p. 183, April, 1892) a new form of black duck (A. obscura rubripes). It is slightly larger than the common form, has the dark feathers of crown edged with gray or yellowish, the dark markings on foreneck and sides of head coarser and blacker, bill yellow, tarsi and toes bright red. Its distribution is apparently northern and western. PEORIDA DUSKY DUG Anas fulvigula Ripew. The general color above is brownish-black, as in the black duck, but the feathers more widely margined with yellowish, giving a generally paler cast to the bird. The chin and throat are always plain unstreaked buff, these being finely streaked in the black duck. The speculum is green, sometimes tipped with white, which may then form a bar across the wing. The bill 1s olive- yellow and there is a triangular spot of black at its base, near the angle of the mouth. The legs and feet are orange-red. The length is about 20 inches and the wing 10. The female is somewhat paler than the male. 95 96 DUCK SHOOTING. The Florida duck is an altogether lighter colored bird than the dusky duck and there can be no question as to its specific distinctness nor of the ease with which it may be distinguished if the differential characters are borne in mind. These consist (1) in the altogether paler coloration, the under parts being buff, streaked with dusky, instead of the reverse; (2) the plain buff cheeks, chin and throat, these parts being thickly streaked in the dusky duck; (3) the black spot at base of upper mandible, next to corner of mouth; (4) the green instead of violet speculum. Wy, Wy Y wi sani itON}) f MOTTLED DUCK, Anas fulvigula maculosa (SENN.). The mottled duck resembles the Florida duck in the characters given above, except that the cheeks are streaked instead of plain, the speculum violet instead of green and the general coloration rather darker—mot- tled rather than streaked. It is described by Mr. G. B. Sennett as follows: Top of head blackish-brown, mar- gined with very pale buff. Chin and throat isabella color. Cheeks, buffy white, with narrow streaks of dark brown. Feathers of breast, wings, upper parts and flanks blackish-brown, margined with pale buff. Under parts buffy white, each feather with a broad 97 98 DUCK SHOOTING. blackish-brown mark near the tip, giving a decidedly mottled appearance. Under tail-coverts blackish, with outer margins of inner webs reddish-buff; those of outer webs buffy white. The four middle tail feathers blackish-brown, the others brownish. Under surface of all tail feathers light gray. The speculum is metal- lic purple, its feathers tipped with white. Length about Ig inches, wing 10 inches. These three forms are so much alike that it is not probable that the average gunner will be able to dis- tinguish them apart. They occupy different regions, and while their ranges probably overlap, it is not likely that the southern forms are ever found much beyond the regions which they are known to inhabit. The dusky duck, better known as black duck, is the commonest of the fresh-water ducks of Eastern Can- ada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the New Eng- land coast, but when it gets as far south as the Chesa- peake Bay and North Carolina it finds there its relative, the mallard, in numbers as great as its own and as- sociates with it on terms of equality. The black duck, while feeding almost exclusively in fresh water, by no means avoids the sea coast. On the contrary, in the New England States it spends most of the day resting on the salt water and only visits the inland streams, swamps and marshes to feed dur- ing the night. In these localities it does not disdain such salt-water food as it may pick up, and in the early morning at low tide I have seen great flocks of these MOTTLED DUGCR. 99 birds feeding on the sand beaches and mud flats off Milford, Conn., where their chief food must have been the winkles that are so abundant there. The black duck is not common in the interior, though it has been reported from near York Factory. Dr. Yarrow has reported it from Utah, but these birds were perhaps mottled duck (4. f. maculosa). I, per- sonally, have not seen it west of Nebraska, and then only on a very few occasions. The specimens then noted may have been mottled ducks. It is occa- sionally taken in Iowa and Minnesota, but so seldom that most duck shooters do not know the species. Oc- casionally a man, whose experience extends over fifteen or twenty years of gunning there, will say that he has seen a bird two or three times. It has been re- ported as breeding in great numbers about forty miles north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. In mild winters the black duck remains throughout the season in Massachusetts and Connecticut, but sometimes, if the cold is bitter and long-continued, the ice covers its customary feeding grounds, and its food becoming very scarce, it grows so thin that gunners refuse longer to kill it. At such times it sits off shore in the sea, or, if the ice extends very far out from the shore, upon the ice, and almost starves to death. We have once or twice seen birds caught in muskrat traps which were nothing more than skeletons covered by feathers. In New England the black duck is considered one of the most acute of all our fowl and is very difficult of 100 DUCK SHOOTING. approach. They usually refuse to notice decoys, and, owing to their keen senses and constant watchfulness, are not shot in great numbers. The gunners believe that their sense of smell is very keen, and will not at- tempt to approach them down the wind, believing that the ducks will smell them. The black duck rises from the water in the same manner as the mallard and its note is not to be dis- tinguished from the mallard’s. In the Southern States, where they feed chiefly on grasses and rice and wild celery, they are very delicious, but on the New Eng- land coast they are sometimes found to be very inferior table birds. In the South the black ducks often congregate in flocks of several hundred, resorting especially to lit- tle flag ponds in the marshes which they especially af- fect. Here they appear to have lost much of the sus- piciousness which they show further north and often come readily to decoys, responding as easily as the mal- lard to the quacking of duck, man or duck call. More than almost any of its relatives the black duck seems to be a night feeder, and all night long its cries may be heard through the marsh; yet it is, of course, well known that all ducks feed at night, especially when there is a moon, and the very common belief that the black duck does this more than others may be without foundation. The black duck is frequently domesticated and does well in confinement, and it readily interbreeds with the mallard, either the wild or the domestic. _Domesti- MOTTLED DUCK. IOI cated birds are frequently used as decoys, and with great effect. While the black duck breeds chiefly to the north of - the United States, nevertheless many rear their young in Maine, New Hampshire, New York and even as far south as North Carolina, though there is, of course, a possibility that the birds breeding there may belong to the next species. The nest is usually built on the ground, concealed in high grass or rushes, and the eggs vary in number from six to eleven or twelve. They are grayish-white, with a very faint tinge of green. Mr. Geo. A. Boardman, of Calais, Me., however, re- ports that he once found a dusky duck’s nest in a cavity of a leaning birch tree about thirty feet high. The young, from the time they are newly hatched, are ex- pert in hiding, and at the approach of danger make for the shore and conceal themselves among the grasses. The Florida dusky duck, while very similar to the black duck, may easily be distinguished from it if the characters already mentioned are kept in mind. The general differences are much paler color and absence of streaks on the cheeks, chin, throat and fore-neck, be- sides a difference in the markings on the bill. This bird was long considered to be a pale southern race of the black duck, but of late years has been considered a valid species. Its range is a very restricted one and is confined apparently to Southern Florida. In habits it does not differ greatly from the ordi- nary black duck, except so far as its surroundings ne- cessitate a difference. During the winter it resorts 102 DUCK SHOOTING. for food to the fresh-water ponds during the day and at evening flies to the shores about the islands, where the night is spent. The birds mate in late winter and early spring and the broods are hatched in April. The nest is placed in heavy grass or vegetation, which is often so thick as to conceal the eggs. Often the nests are placed at the foot of a palmetto or other bush. It is said that many of these nests are destroyed by the burn- ing of the grass, which takes place each year in certain portions of Florida in order to make way for the fresh grass for the cattle. The eggs of this species are said to be similar to those of the ordinary black duck, but are a little paler and not quite so large. It is altogether probable that all the black ducks killed in Florida may belong to this species. The mottled duck described by Mr. Sennett as a sub- species of the Florida duck, closely resembles it. The cheeks, however, are somewhat streaked with brown,as in the ordinary black duck, though the throat is un- streaked and the general appearance of the bird is spotted or mottled rather than streaked. The difference in color of the speculum in these three forms of black duck is a real one, and of importance. It denotes the average effect of color independent of changes due to the angle at which the light strikes them. Very little is known about the habits of this sub- species, which appears to be confined to Eastern Texas and Louisiana, and to extend its range north as far as Kansas. Mf (i i me ey ey a ee oe ( ' j Hi f oe Dee See GADWALL. Anas strepera LINN. The general colors of the gadwall duck are gray, most of the feathers being nearly white, crossed by nar- row bars of black or blackish brown. In the adult male the head and neck are pale brownish-white, thickly speckled with black or blackish-brown. The top of the head and back of neck are often rusty brown and the throat is yellowish, sometimes dotted with brown. The breast and back are buff, or nearly white, marked with dark slate brown or even black bars. The back, scap- ular feathers and sides, white, with cross bars of black; the lower part of the back still darker, changing to ab- solute black on the upper tail-coverts. The long scap- 103 104 DUCK SHOOTING. ular or shoulder feathers are fringed with reddish- brown; the greater coverts at the bend of the wing bright chestnut. Speculum white, edged beneath with velvety black,and with broad patch of same in front, be- tween the white and the chestnut. Belly and under tail- coverts black; tail gray, fading to white at the edges; the rest of the under parts white. The bill is bluish-black and the legs and feet yellow, with dusky webs. The adult female is much like the male, except that she is duller throughout and she generally lacks the black of the full plumaged male. Usually there is no chestnut on the wing, but the speculum is white and the bird may be known from any other fresh-water ducks by this character. The young are still more dull in color. Often the speculum is indistinct, but there is usually enough of it, with the bill, to identify the species. Mr. Gurdon Trumbull was the first to call attention to the presence in highly plumaged males of a well-defined black ring, extending almost around the neck, between the lighter feathers of the head and neck and the darker ones of the breast. The gadwall duck is distributed over almost the whole northern hemisphere, being found alike in Eu- rope, Asia, Africa and North America. At the same time it is not an abundant bird anywhere, apparently never occurring in large flocks nor even in frequent small ones. In North America, however, its distribution is gen- eral, but is chiefly westward. Still it has been found breeding on the island of Anticosti, in the Gulf of St. GADWALL. 105 Lawrence, New England and Long Island, and to the south of this, generally along the Atlantic coast. A female was captured in Bermuda in 1849. The gadwall is not uncommon in Illinois, Minne- sota and generally through the Mississippi Valley, and formerly bred to some extent over the whole country. It is said to be common in California in winter and has been taken on the Pacific coast of Mexico, as well as in British Columbia. Its chief breeding grounds, however, appear to be north of the United States, al- though no doubt to some extent it passes the summer in the high mountains of the main range from Colorado northward. The male gadwall is a very handsome bird, particu- larly striking in his combination of quiet yet effective colors. There are some things about the species which remind one strongly of the widgeon. Often a large flock of widgeons may include a small number of gad- walls, and often the gunner will see from his blind a small flock of birds approaching him, which at first he imagines to be widgeons, but which, when they have come closer, prove gadwalls. It is difficult to understand why the gadwall is so scarce a bird. It is true that in his ornithological re- port of the Survey of the Fortieth Parallel Mr. Ridg- way tells us that he found it by far the most numerous duck during the breeding season in Western Nevada, where, in the valley of the Truckee River from the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Pyramid Lake, it outnumbered all other species together. Yet there ap- 106 DUCK SHOOTING. pears to be no region known where it occurs in great flocks, like those better known species with which it | commonly associates, as the widgeon and the pintail, and, by comparison with other species, gadwalls are very seldom killed. So far as we know, this bird ought to be on the increase. It seems to differ from most ducks in not being gregarious and in preferring to keep in pairs or very small companies, perhaps made up of the members of a single family. It pays little atten- tion to decoys, and, in my experience, seldom comes to them, although occasionally shot when flying by.* The gadwall has a number of common names, of which two of the most familiar are gray duck, applied also to two other species, and creek duck, which is used along the Atlantic coast. Besides this it is known as speckle-belly, from the dark markings often seen on the under plumage; blaten duck, which is nearly a translation of its Latin name; Welsh drake and German duck, given by Giraud and probably now obsolete. Its similarity to the widgeon is indicated by its names, widgeon and gray widgeon, used along the southern Atlantic coast, and in England it is sometimes called sand widgeon. The nest of the gadwall is built on the ground and is a mere depression, lined with dried grass or leaves, and sometimes with down. It is usually near the water’s edge and well concealed. The eggs are of a pale creamy yellow. | *See lengthy correspondence on this subject in Forest and Stream, Vol. lviii, January and February, 1902. EUROPEAN WIDGEON. Anas penelope LINN. This species, so familiar in the Old World, is a not un- common straggler in North America. It has been killed in so many different places that it is important that it should be described here. In the adult male in autumn and winter the head and sides of neck are bright rufous, almost the color of the head of the male redhead, but without the metallic gloss, or still more like the head of the male green-winged teal. The forehead and crown of head are white, often shaded with rufous, so as to be cream color or even pinkish. The chin is white; throat and part of the front of the neck black. Often there is 107 108 DUCK SHOOTING. a cluster of small blackish or greenish feathers behind the eye and on the back of the head, and sometimes the sides of the head are minutely streaked with dusky. The breast is purplish gray; the sides, flanks and back waved with cross-bars of black and white, the effect being somewhat like that of the same parts in the male green-winged teal. The tertiaries, or long feathers growing from the third bone of the wing, are gray on their inner webs and velvety-black, edged with white on the outer. The wing-coverts are white and the spec- ulum or wing-patch brilliant metallic green, sometimes changing to black at the extremity. The upper and lower tail-coverts are black, the other under parts white, the wings and tail brown, the tail often edged with white. The bill is bluish, its nail black, and the legs and feet gray. The length is about 18 inches, wing be- tween 10 and II inches. In the female the head and neck are yellowish-red, dotted with black or greenish spots and sometimes the top of the head is altogether black. The general color of the upper parts is brown, the feathers being edged and barred with whitish. The wing-coverts, instead of being white, are merely tipped with white, while the speculum is dull black or even in the young some- times grayish. The under parts are white, as in the male. The female of the European widgeon is not always to be easily distinguished from certain plumages of the American bird, but its bill and general aspect will al- ways identify it as a widgeon, and a specimen about EUROPEAN WIDGEON. 109 which there is any doubt should always be preserved for submission to an ornithologist. This species belongs to the Old World, yet has been found over much of the New. It occurs regularly in Alaska and breeds there, and, no doubt, it is due to this fact that it has been killed in California, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Florida. I have killed it in North Carolina, but it occurs there so seldom that it is not at all known to gunners, and my boatman when he picked up this bird took it at first for a redhead and afterward for a hybrid. Its habits, as observed in the Old World, do not greatly differ from those of the American widgeon, and it is said to be as numerous in certain parts of Eu- rope as our bird is here. During the molting season the male loses his bright colors, which, however, are regained in the early fall. AMERICAN WIDGEON, BALD-PATE. ] GMEL. nas americana A pate has the forehead and crown of the The male bald- head de from the eyes to , margined on either si the back of the head by a broad band of metall ite wh ic green, imes run- d and somet mn ing beh ittle way down the neck the two bands meet in front of i The head l the eyes and the s ning a thickly te, ly wh des lavender or des and upper neck are wh i h black ; the ite The throat is near it dotted w 1 , fore-breast, back and s gray, lower neck The feathers of h fine | ines of paler 0 1C imes quite ri somet h des are cross 1S purpl the . ’ f black ines O h it barred w 1 the s ing to changi ? th. | 1 is finely waved w back 11 AMERICAN WIDGEON. It distinct lines of blackish and white on the lower back; the upper and under tail-coverts glossy black; the tail brownish-gray ; the wing-coverts broadly white, some of them tipped with black, so as to make a black bar across the wing. The speculum is green and black; the lower breast and belly white, which extends up on the sides of the rump. The bill is light bluish, with a black tip, and the feet are somewhat darker, with still darker webs. This is the color of the most highly plumaged males, and from this there are all gradations down to the much duller female, which entirely lacks the green head- patch, the large white wing-patch, and in which the speculum is very much duller, being merely blackish, with a white border in front. The general aspect of the female is streaked and speckled with blackish brown and whitish, becoming darker on the breast and sides of body. The upper parts are grayish and the under parts nearly white, the under tail-coverts being barred with black and white. Young males usually have the breast purplish-gray, the speculum brilliant, and traces of white wing-coverts. . The bald-pate or widgeon is widely distributed throughout America and is found in winter as far south as Mexico and even Central America. It is an occa- sional straggler to Europe, but is found there only by accident. At the present day it is merely a winter vis- itor to the United States, except in certain portions of the West, where a few widgeons may still breed on the high central plateau or on the flanks of the Rocky 112 DUCK SHOOTING. Mountains. It is not commonly found in New Eng- land, yet Mr. Boardman has reported it as found near Calais, Me., and it occurs occasionally on Long Island. Further to the south, however, in Chesapeake Bay and on the coasts of North and South Carolina, it is a com- mon bird in winter, occurring in great flocks and eagerly sought after for its flesh, which is very highly esteemed. The widgeons reach the United States usually in the month of October, and great numbers of them winter in the Southern States. On the Atlantic coast they are constantly found associated with other species of fresh- water ducks, as well as with the canvas-backs and the redheads. It is said that they especially seek the com- pany of the canvas-backs when these are feeding, and that they rob them of the grasses and celery which they bring up from great depths, which the widgeons could never reach. At all events it is certain that they associate with the canvas-backs, and no doubt they feed largely on the leaves of the plants of which the canvas-backs eat the roots. Certain it is that at these times and in these places the flesh of the widgeon is so excellent that it cannot be distinguished from that of its larger and more famous companion. The widgeon is regarded as one of the shyest of our ducks. Of it Mr. D. G. Elliot, in his admirable book on the “Wild Fowl of North America,” says: “The widgeon is one of the wariest of our ducks, suspicious of everything, and not only is unwilling to approach any spot or object of which it is afraid, but by keeping AMERICAN WIDGEON. 113 up a continuous whistling alarms all the other ducks in the vicinity and consequently renders itself very dis- agreeable and at times a considerable nuisance to the sportsman. However, its flesh is so tender and palat- able and it is such a pretty and gamy bird that one is inclined to forgive many of its apparent shortcomings. The usual note of this duck is a low, soft whistle, very melodious in quality, and when on the wing the mem- bers of a flock keep continually talking to each other in this sweet tone as they speed along. They fly very rap- idly and usually high in the air in a long, outstretched line, all abreast, except perhaps the two ends are a little behind the center bird, who may be considered the leader. When only moving from place to place in the marsh, and but a short distance above the ground, they proceed usually without any order or regularity, re- minding one sometimes of a flock of pigeons. The pinions are moved with much quickness and the long primaries give a sharp-pointed shape to the wing that causes the birds to be easily recognized. Flocks com- posed of a number of widgeon and sprig-tail are often seen, and the combination is a very unfavorable one to a sportsman hoping for a quiet shot at close range. “As the birds approach the decoys some widgeon will whistle and edge out to one side, as much as to say, ‘It may be all right, but I don’t like the looks of it,’ and he will be followed by another suspicious member. Then the pintails become uneasy and begin to climb and look down into the blind, and the patient watcher sees the flocks too often sheer off to one side and pass by. But II4 DUCK SHOOTING. should there be some birds present, as often happens, which are heedless of all warnings or suspicious utter- ings, and keep steadily on, with the evident intention to settle among their supposed brethren, then, as they gather together preparatory to alighting and the sports- man rises in his ambush, suddenly the air is filled with darting, climbing birds, who shoot off in every direc- tion, but generally upward as if the flock was blown asunder, and all disappear with a celerity that is aston- ishing, and, to a nervous sportsman, with results that are mortifying.” Notwithstanding this watchfulness, widgeons often come very nicely to decoys, and a passing flock, espe- cially if it be small, may frequently be turned from its course by a low, soft whistle and will swing into the de- coys and drop in a series of beautiful curves until they are almost over them. Then, however, the gunner must waste no time in selecting his bird and holding properly on it, for the widgeon is able to get out of danger with considerable speed. This species is extremely common in California, where it is eagerly sought after. In the Mississippi Valley region it is not so abundant nor so greatly esteemed, for there the mallard, on account of its greater size, is preferred. The breeding grounds of the widgeon include the whole of British America and Alaska, but its summer home is rather in the western portion of North Amer- ica and away from the seacoast. The eggs are creamy white in color. AMERICAN WIDGEON. 115 Among the names given by Mr. Gurdon Trumbull, in his excellent work so frequently referred to, are green-headed widgeon, bald-head, southern widgeon, California widgeon, white-belly and poacher. Other names are bald-face, bald-crown, wheat duck and smok- ing duck. a Wy Ye, BUROPEAN TEAL. Anas crecca LINN. This is a European species, occurring only casually in North America. It very closely resembles the com- mon green-winged teal, but lacks the white bar on the side of the breast, has the black and white markings of the back and sides much heavier, has the inner webs of the outer scapular and sometimes part of the outer webs, white or yellowish, and the forehead bordered on either side by a pale-buff line. The female is so sim- ilar to the female green-winged teal that only an ex- pert ornithologist can distinguish between the two. The European. teal is found occasionally in the Aleutian Islands, and it has frequently been exposed for sale in the New York markets with other ducks shot in the 116 EUROPEAN TEAL. E17 neighborhood. The most important distinguishing mark between these two very similar birds is the white bar on each side of the breast, which is so noticeable in our green-winged teal, but absent in the European species. In December, 1900, two of these teal were killed near Merrick, L. I., N. Y., by Mr. Sherman Smith. - European observers tell us that this teal is abundant over the Old World; that it breeds in Great Britain and Ireland and is common over Lapland, Russia and Northern Asia. It is readily domesticated. —_——__ _ ee a GREEN-WINGED TEAL. Anas carolinensis GMEL. The adult male has the head and neck reddish-chest- nut and a broad band of metallic green on either side, running from the eye to the back of the neck, where the two meet in a tuft. The under side of this green band is margined with a narrow line of buff; the chin is black; the breast is reddish cream-color, dotted with round or oval spots of jet black. There is a collar round the lower part of the neck; the sides of the breast, back of lower neck and of the body are finely waved with lines of black upon white ground. The back is similarly marked and the lower back is brownish- gray. The upper tail-coverts are dark, margined with 118 GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 119 white, and the tail feathers gray, edged with white. On the side of the breast, in front of the bend of the wing, is a broad white bar. The tips of the last row of wing- coverts are margined with yellowish. The speculum is black and green, margined with white. The outer scapulars are velvety-black. The belly and a patch on either side of the under tail-coverts are rich buff, the under tail-coverts black. The bill is dark, nearly black, and the feet grayish-black. The length is about 144 inches. The female is brownish, the feathers being gener- ally margined with buff. The sides of head are whit- ish, speckled with brownish. The wing is like that of the male, but the speculum is somewhat smaller and duller. The breast is usually more or less spotted and the under parts are white, with faint indications of spots. The green-winged teal is found over the whole of North America, from the Arctic Sea on the north to the Gulf of Mexico and Central America on the south. It occurs also in Cuba. It is one of the most beautiful of our ducks and is highly esteemed by gunners. Unlike many of our better known fresh-water ducks, the green-winged teal is rather common in New Eng- land, as well as in the interior and to the southward, and wherever found it isa great favorite. It flies with astonishing speed, but with great steadiness, and often the flocks are of very great size and fly so closely bunched together that they resemble more a flock of mi- grating blackbirds than of ducks. At such times, if 120 DUCK SHOOTING. they suddenly become aware of the presence of the gunner, the bunch flies apart like an exploding bomb and the birds dart in all directions and at such a rate that it takes a quick shooting to catch them. On the other hand, if the shots can be fired into this close mass the havoc created is very great; ten, twenty or thirty birds sometimes being killed by the discharge of two barrels. While the green-winged teal is much at home on the water and is a good diver in times of danger, it is also very much at home on the land, over which it runs with considerable speed. Although this species breeds chiefly to the north of the United States, its nests have been taken in Wiscon- sin, lowa and on the prairies and in the mountains of the West. I have seen it in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, accompanied by young, and I recall one oc- casion in North Park, Colorado, where I spent a very pleasant half hour watching an old female and her young as they busily fed in the narrow stream near where I sat. The mother bird at length discovered me, and though not greatly alarmed, she promptly led her flock of eight tiny young ashore, where, in a long line, with the mother at the head, they promptly trotted into the bushes and concealed themselves. : The green-wing is a more hardy bird than the blue- winged teal and is often found on warm springs and streams in the North long after the ice has closed most of the quiet waters. I have seen it in Connecticut in the early winter, when almost everything was frozen up. GREEN-WINGED TEAL, P2T The nest of the teal is commonly placed not far from the water, in high grass or sometimes among a tussock of rye grass, or I have even found it on top of a dry ridge, under a sage brush at quite a long distance from any stream. The eggs are small and apparently a little rounder than duck eggs usually are. The number in a nest varies from ten to fifteen. il ey LONG ny al | i i | BLUE-WINGED TEAL. ‘Anas discors LINN. The adult male has the top of the head and the chin black ; a white crescent-shaped band, edged with black, extends from the forehead above the eye down to be- low the bill; the rest of the head is dark lead-color, sometimes with glossy purplish reflections. The long scapulars running back from the shoulder are black, streaked with buff. The back and upper parts gener- ally, dark brown and dull black, spotted, barred and streaked with buff. The lower back is dull brown; the smaller wing-coverts at the bend of the wing sky-blue, as are also some of the long shoulder feathers. A wide bar of white across the wing, above the speculum, which is green, separates the blue and the green. There is a 122 BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 123 narrow line of white at the extremity of the speculum and a patch on either side of the tail. The lower parts are light chestnut, thickly speckled with black. The under tail-coverts are black, as is also the bill. The eyes, legs and feet are yellow, the latter with dusky markings. The female is always to be known by the blue mark- ings on the wing, though the brilliant green speculum is often wanting. The chin, throat and base of the bill are white, marked with blackish, and the head and neck streaked and speckled with dusky brown. The other parts are dark brown, speckled with dusky brown. The bird is slightly larger than the green-winged teal. The blue-winged teal is often called summer teal, and this gives a hint as to one of its habits. It is apparently a bird of more southern distribution than the other teals and is almost the earliest of the migrating ducks to make its appearance. The first to arrive are com- monly found on our streams in late August or early September, and persons who are pushing through the marshes in search of rail very frequently start little bunches of blue-wings from the open places. It may be imagined that such birds have not come from a great distance. Indeed, the blue-winged teal breeds at many points in the West, and would do so more frequently were the birds permitted to make their northward mi- gration without being disturbed by gunners. The blue-wing is common throughout Eastern Amer- ica, but in the West its place is chiefly taken by the cin- namon teal, a closely related species. In its northward 124 DUCK SHOOTING. migrations the blue-winged teal is found summering on the Great Slave Lake, and Mr. Dall tells of having seen it on the Yukon, and it has been reported from other points in Alaska. It breeds also in Northern New Eng- land, as well as near the prairie sloughs of some of the States of the Central West. The nest is placed on the ground, among reeds and grasses, and is usually, but not always, near the water. It is lined with down from the mother’s breast, and when she leaves the nest she covers the eggs with this down and over it places more or less grass. The number of eggs is said to be from eight to twelve. During the winter these birds reach Mexico and Central America and are commonly found in Florida and the Gulf States. They feed in great numbers in the southern rice fields, where they are reported to be caught in great numbers by means of traps set by the negroes. Teal are abundant in the low country about the mouth of the Mississippi, where they are known to the creoles as printannierre and autonnierre, according to the season in which they are seen. The teal frequently travel in very large flocks, and the speed with which they move and the closeness with which theyare huddled together have become proverbial among gunners. They come up readily to decoys and not infrequently a large flock may come in without warning to a heedless gunner and drop down among his stools before he sees them. When he stands up to shoot, the teal leave the water as the mallard does, by a single spring, and dart away in all directions, coming BLUE-WINGED TEAL, 125 together again and going on in a close bunch. Ifa flock is seen flying by, they may sometimes be attracted by a soft, lisping note, and if they see the decoys they are likely to drop in among them. The blue-winged teal is fond of running about over mud flats and sifting them for food, and in localities where they are abund- ant a place suchi as this is one of the very best in which to tie out for them. As with the green-wing so with this species—great numbers may be killed by the single discharge of a gun, provided it is properly aimed. Audubon speaks of having seen eighty-four birds killed by the single dis- charge of a double-barreled gun. Tie SO i Nt va i: CINNAMON TEAL. Anas cyanoptera VIEILL. In the adult male the top of the head is blackish- brown, while the rest of the head, the neck and lower parts are bright chestnut. This color grows darker on the belly, until it is quite black on the under tail-coverts. The scapulars, or shoulder feathers, and a part of the back, are chestnut, the feathers having paler edges and the long ones a buff central stripe; these are also barred with black. The smaller wing-coverts and the outer webs of some of the scapulars are sky-blue. The middle coverts are dark, tipped with white, and the speculum is dark metallic green. The tail is blackish, the bill is black, the eyes yellow or orange and the feet are bright yellow, with touches of dusky. The female is very much 126 Female. Male. THE SHOVELLER. Reduced from Audubon’s Plate. CINNAMON TEAL. 127 like the female blue-winged teal, but is larger and some- what more richly colored. The belly is usually dis- tinctly spotted. Length, 17 inches; wing, 74 inches. The cinnamon teal is a western species. It is rarely found as far east as the Mississippi Valley, though it has been taken in Florida, but such birds are mere accidental wanderers. The cinnamon teal becomes abundant after the main Continental Divide is crossed and is a common breeder and migrant all through the Rocky Mountains and in California. In summer it is found as far north as the Columbia River, and probably breeds freely all through the Western United States. I have found its nest in Wyoming placed under a small sage bush, thirty or forty yards from a little mountain stream that was nearly dry. It had eleven eggs, ivory-white in color, and there was no down in the nest nor any appreciable lining. In his account of the cinnamon teal, published in the “Birds of the Northwest,” Dr. Coues paints one of those charming word pictures which make his writings such delightful reading as well for sportsmen as for naturalists. Hesays of it: “I never think of the bird without recalling scenes in which it was a prominent figure. I have in mind a picture of the headwaters of the Rio Verde, in November, just before winter had fairly set in, although frosts had already touched the foliage and dressed every tree and bush in gorgeous colors. The atmosphere showed a faint yellow haze and was heavy with odors—souvenirs of departing flowers. The sap of the trees coursed sluggishly, no 128 DUCK SHOOTING. longer lending elastic vigor to the limbs, that now cracked and broke when forced apart; the leaves loosened their hold, for want of the same mysterious tie,and fell in showers where the quail rustled over their withering forms. Woodpeckers rattled with exultation against the resounding bark and seemed to know of the greater store for them now in the nerveless, drowsy trees that resisted the chisel less stoutly than when they were full of juicy life. Ground squirrels worked hard, gathering the last seeds and nuts to increase their win- ter’s store, and cold-blooded reptiles dragged their stif- fening joints to bask in sunny spots and stimulate the slow current of circulation before they should with- draw and sink into torpor. Wildfowl came flocking from their northern breeding places—among them thousands of teal—hurtling overhead and plashing in the waters they were to enliven and adorn all winter. “The upper parts of both forks of the Verde are filled with beavers that have dammed the streams at short intervals and transformed them in some places into a succession of pools, where the teal swim in still water. Other wildfowl join them, such as mallards, pintails and green-wings, disporting together. The ap- proach to the open waters is difficult in most places from the rank growths, first of shrubbery and next of reeds, that fringe the open banks; in other places, where the stream narrows in precipitous gorges, from the al- most inaccessible rocks. But these difficulties over- come, it is a pleasant sight to see the birds before us— perhaps within a few paces if we have very carefully CINNAMON TEAL. 129 crawled through the rushes to the verge—fancying themselves perfectly secure. Some may be quietly pad- dling in and out of the sedge on the other side, daintily picking up the floating seeds that were shaken down when the wind rustled through, stretching up to gather those still hanging or to pick off little creatures from the seared stalks. Perhaps a flock is floating idly in mid- stream, some asleep, with the head resting close on the back and the bill buried in the plumage. Some others swim vigorously along, with breasts deeply immersed, tasting the water as they go, straining it through their bills to net minute insects, and gabbling to each other their sense of perfect enjoyment. But let them appear never so careless, they are quick to catch the sound of coming danger and take alarm; they are alert in an in- stant; the next incautious movement or snapping of a twig startles them; a chorus of quacks, a splashing of feet, a whistling of wings,and the whole company is off. He is a good sportsman who stops them then, for the stream twists about, the reeds confuse and the birds are out of sight almost as soon as seen. “Much as elsewhere, I presume, the duck hunter has to keep his wits about him and be ready to act at very short notice; but there is double necessity on the Verde. The only passages along the stream are Indian trails, here always warpaths. In retaliation for real or fan- cied wrongs—or partly, at least, from inherent dispo- sition—these savages spend most of their time in wan- dering about in hopes of plunder and murder; this, too, against each other, so long as the tribes are not 130 DUCK SHOOTING. leagued in common cause against a common enemy. On the day I have in mind more particularly we passed a spot where lay the bodies of several Apaches. From the arrows still sticking in them we judged afterward that they had been killed by a stray band of Navajos. But this was not what we thought most about at the time. We were only four together and this was close by the place we designed to spend the day in hunting and fishing. Contemplation of the decaying Indians was not calculated to raise our spirits, for though, of course, we knew the danger beforehand and meant to take our chances, it was not pleasant to have the thing brought up in such a way. We kept on through the canyon a little more cautiously, talked a little more seriously and concluded to look for game in places where there was the least likelihood of an ambuscade. I confess that the day’s sport was rather too highly spiced to be alto- gether enjoyable, and suspect that others shared my uncomfortable conviction of foolhardiness. However, the day passed without further intimation of danger. Game was plenty and the shooting good. Out of the woods and with a good bag, we were disposed and could better afford to laugh at each other’s fears.” The habits of the red-breasted teal do not differ markedly from that of the eastern relative, which it so closely resembles. The true home of this species seems to be in Southern North America and South America, and it is found in Chili, Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. It is a bird that gives great shooting to western sportsmen. he Wy: WY EEE EE SLGEELTE NYT ag PY ES Dy Py ty A 2G 4 iy SHOVELLER. Spatula clypeata (LINN.). The male shoveller has the head and the upper neck very dark glossy green, with violet reflections, an en- tirely different color from that of the mallard, almost black. The lower neck and breast are white; belly and sides rich chestnut brown. The under tail-coverts and vent are black, bordered by a gray line, a patch of white at either side of the rump. The back is dusky brown; the upper tail-coverts black; the long scapu- lars, or shoulder feathers, streaked with black and white; the wing-coverts are light blue, the last row tipped with white, forming a narrow band across the wing, and back of this is a bright green speculum nar- 131 132 DUCK SHOOTING. rowly bordered by white. The tail is whitish, blotched with brownish-gray. The expanded bill is black, the eyes yellow and the feet orange-red. The female is colored very much as is the female mallard, but has the blue wing-coverts and the green speculum. The belly is sometimes pure white. The bill is orange or brown, often speckled with black. The feet are orange. Length, about 19 inches; wing, 9 to 10 inches. . Young males of different ages have the plumage generally like the female, but as they grow older the head and neck are mottled with black and the under parts are often chestnut. Whatever the plumage, the shoveller may be recognized by the great expansion of the bill toward the tip, which gives it the name spoon- bill. This bill has a fringe of very slender, close-set lamellze, which are long yet flexible, and are admirably adapted to the process of sifting out food from the fine soft mud in which the shoveller delights to feed. This species is one of the most widely distributed of all the ducks, being found throughout the whole of the northern hemisphere. In North America it is nowhere a very abundant duck, but, ‘at the same time, is fre- quently met with throughout the South and West; yet it never appears in great flocks, as do the black duck, mallard, widgeon and the teals, but rather in small, oc- casional companies, though I have seen a flock number- ing nearly a hundred. This, however, is unusual. On the New England coast and Long Island the shoveller is quite an uncommon bird, but further to the SHOVELLER. 133 southward, as in Maryland and North Carolina, it is frequently killed. In many of its ways, as, of course, in its appearance in some respects, it resembles the teals, but it is much less gregarious in its habits. The shov- eller breeds from Texas to Alaska, and I have fre- quently found the nests in Dakota, Montana and Wyo- ming, usually near prairie lakes, often under a bunck of rye grass or a sage brush and usually fairly well con- cealed. There are usually a few feathers and some down in the nest, which contains eight or ten greenish-white eggs. The female sits close, but when startled from her nest flies away without sound and soon disappears. The young, when first hatched, do not show the pe- culiar shape of the bill possessed by the adult, this being a later development. Young birds of the first season, when killed in the fall, will be found to have the bill very flexible, so that it can be bent in every direction. The shoveller is a fine table bird, but because of the small numbers that are killed it is not very well known. Mr. Trumbull gives as the names for this bird the blue-winged shoveller, red-breasted shoveller, shovel- bill, broady, butler duck——“‘the bird being so called be- cause of its spoon-like bill, and with reference to a well- known general in the civil war” —cow-frog, spoon-billed widgeon, spoon-billed teal, mud-shoveller and swaddle- bill. In Louisiana the bird is known as mesquin. The note of the shoveller is a weak quack, somewhat like that of the green-winged teal.* *Compare “California Duck Notes,” by Robert Erskine Ross, Forest and Stream, Vol, lix, p. 67, July 26, 1902. A Ml ASMA E yay lan Nh Sh INKY BANA et ae a on \ i it Nhe : ns ain SAAN PIN TAIL. Dafila acuta (LINN.). The male pintail has the head and upper neck wood brown, darkest on the crown, often with greenish, red- dish and purple reflections. A part of the hind neck is black; lower down it becomes grayish, finely barred with dusky, gray and white. The front of back and sides are waved with very fine cross bars of white and black. Most of the wing is gray or brownish. The speculum is green, in some lights coppery, margined with white, tawny and black, and with a cinnamon-colored bar in front. A line beginning at the back of the head and passing down the side of neck is white, running into the 134 PINTAIL. 135 white of the fore-neck and under parts. The long feathers growing from the third bone of the wing are pale gray, with a black strip down the middle. The long scapulars, or shoulder feathers, are black, edged with whitish. The upper and under tail-coverts are black, touched with white on the outside, forming a line of white. The tail feathers are mostly gray and brown, but the long central pair, which are narrow and pointed, and extend far beyond the others, are black. The bill is bluish-gray, eyes brown, and the legs and feet gray. Length, 26-30 inches; wing, over IO inches. The female is one of the plain grayish ducks, resem- bling in a general way the female mallard, or the female green-winged teal. The ground color of the upper parts is rusty or whitish, streaked with dusky or brown- ish. The chin and throat are whitish; the wing-coverts brownish-gray, edged with white. The under parts are white, streaked with dusky. The bird is always to be distinguished by its bill and its feet. The pintail is a bird of wide distribution, inhabiting the whole of the northern hemisphere, from Alaska on the west to Japan and Northern Kamschatka on the east. In America it is found all over the country, at dif- ferent seasons of the year, from ocean to ocean, and from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Sea. In winter it is found in Cuba also. Although breeding in Alaska, on the Mackenzie River, and in Greenland, it is also a summer resident of the Western United States, and breeds in considerable numbers in Dakota, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. I have found their nests there 136 DUCK SHOOTING. in the middle of June, the young not yet having made their appearance. The pintail is not very abundant in autumn on the New England coast, though it is found occasionally in Maine and Massachusetts, and in somewhat greater abundance in Connecticut, where it is known as pheas- ant. On Long Island it is more common during the migrations, and when we reach the coast of Virginia and North Carolina it is one of the abundant ducks. Here it often associates with the mallard and black duck, and when the birds fly to and fro from their feed- ing grounds, a small bunch may contain four or five mallards, two or three black ducks and an equal number of pintails. On the other hand, little flocks made up only of pintails are often seen. In the first volume of the “Water Birds” Dr. Brewer gives the following abridgment of Mr. Kennicott’s ac- count of the pintail in the north: “The summer home of the pintail is within the Arctic region, farther to the northward than that of any other of our fresh- water ducks, comparatively few breeding south of Great Slave Lake. In their spring migrations to the northward they move in immense flocks, which only dis- perse upon their arrival at their breeding grounds. A few reach that lake about May 1, but the main body ar- rive about a week or so later, and mostly pass directly on across the lake to the northward. On the Yukon the first specimens were seen in the latter part of April, and before the roth of May they had arrived in im- mense flocks, which remained some time together in PINTAIL. 137 that vicinity before passing farther north or separating to breed. At this time the birds were fat, and their flesh delicious, much superior to that of any other duck, except the widgeon. At the Yukon the pintails are the latest in nesting of any of the fresh-water ducks, and generally hatch a weck or two after the mallard. He found them breeding in the same grounds and at about the same time, with Fulix affinis, though they do not associate with that species. He always found their nests in low but dry ground, under the shelter of trees or bushes, though never among thick, large trees, and not more than two or three rods from water. They never build on hummocks in the water, nor on high land, but always just upon the edge of a marsh or lake. The nest is usually placed at the foot of a willow, among grass rather than leaves or moss, and is ex- tremely simple, being composed of merely a few bits of broken dry grass and sticks, but well lined with down. The eggs are from seven to nine in number, and rather small in size.” Mr. E. W. Nelson, whose studies of northern birds are so interesting, has given a graphic account of the breeding habits of the pintail, and, among other things, calls attention to an act by this duck curiously similar to the well-known drumming of the snipe. The bird falls from a great height, with wings held stiff and curved, and producing a sound which at first is low, but gradually grows louder, until, as the bird reaches the ground in its diagonal fall, the sound becomes very loud. A man who has had a bunch of canvas-backs or 138 DUCK SHOOTING. black-heads sweep down over him as they prepare to alight, can well imagine what this sound is like. The cry of the pintail in autumn and winter is a low, lisping whistle, but at other times it is said to utter a sound something like the quack of the mallard, and also one similar to the rolling note produced by the black-head. The pintail is quite a shy bird; its usual flight is high in the air, which gives it an opportunity to inspect the country for signs of danger. Often, however, if the weather is favorable, these birds come well to decoys, and are easily killed. There are few more graceful species than this. The long pointed wings, the slender form, terminating in a long neck and tail, and the swift flight, make the bird a very beautiful one. This species rejoices in many names, and some of them given by Mr. Trumbull are pied gray duck, gray widgeon, sea widgeon, split-tail, sprig-tail, spike- tail, picket-tail, sea pheasant, water pheasant, long neck, sharp-tail and spindle-tail. ix N AAC h q NAS S WOOD DUCK. Aix sponsa (LINN.). The adult male has the head and long thick crest rich green and purple, with brilliant metallic reflections. A narrow line of white starts from the upper angle of the bill, passing over the eye, and continuing down into the crest. Another wider line starts behind the eye and runs down into the under part of the crest. The throat and upper neck are white, sending out two branches, one up behind the eye, another back behind the head, partly enclosing the violet black of the lower back of the head. The lower neck and breast are rich chestnut glossed with purple, dotted in front with triangular 139 140 DUCK SHOOTING. spots of white. The back is purplish-black, with glossy reflections, as are also the upper wing-coverts. The shoulder feathers and tertiaries are black, with blue, green and purple reflections, and the longest of the ter- tiary feathers is tipped with white. On the side of the breast, just in front of the wing, is abroad white bar, and below it, another bar, which is black. The sides and flanks are finely waved with black lines on a brown- ish-yellow ground, many of the feathers having a bar of black, bordered with white at the extremities. The under parts are pure white, but the under tail-coverts are glossy black. The upper tail-coverts are long, fall over the tail on either side, and are rich with metallic reflections. The bill is deep red, with a black spot near the base, a white spot on the side, a yellow border to the base, and with a black nail. The eyes are bright carmine red, surrounded by orange-red or scarlet eye- lids. The legs and feet are yellow, with dusky joints and webs. The adult female is generally gray, or greenish-gray, but her markings, in a general way, resembie those of the male. She has the crest, but not so much of it as the male. The throat and under parts are white; the breast and sides greenish-gray, dotted with white mark- ings; the upper parts are more brownish, and have purple and bronzy reflections. The secondaries are white-tipped. The bill is dusky, and there is a narrow line of white all about it. The length is about 19 inches, wing 94 inches. The wood duck is easily the most beautiful of North WOOD DUCK. I4I American ducks. It is commonly compared with the mandarin duck of China, but it is larger and its dress is a little more highly colored, and while more rich, is yet more simple. This is a bird of the South, and breeds everywhere throughout the Eastern and Southern United States, in suitable localities. Unlike most of our ducks, it is not a migrant to the far North, though it has been found as far North as latitude 54 degrees, but it con- fines itself pretty well to the United States, and further to the southward. The wood duck is a bird of swamps and small inland waters, and is notable as being one of the few species which always nests in trees. Sometimes it takes pos- session of a hole excavated by a great woodpecker, or it may adapt a hollow in a trunk or branch to its use. It is very much at home in the timber, and threads its way among the tree-tops at great speed. The eggs are often laid on the bare wood that forms the floor of the cavity which it occupies, but, as incubation goes on, the mother plucks more or less down from her breast to cover them. When the young are hatched, if the nest is over the water, they crawl to the opening and throw themselves into the air to fall into the water. Te: however, the nest is at a distance from the shore, the mother carries them to the water in her bill. When the young ducks are hatched their claws are exceedingly sharp, and they are great climbers. They thus have little difficulty in making their way to the mouth of the hole. 142 DUCK SHOOTING. The wood duck is often kept in confinement, and is a beautiful pet. There are many records of its having been bred in captivity. While a great many wood ducks are shot, they are nowhere sufficiently numerous to make it worth while to gun especially for them. Those that are killed are taken chiefly by accident, when they fly near to decoys put out for other fowl. Being shot at all seasons of the year they are becoming very scarce and are likely to be exterminated before long. APE F008 Gree (Ways ats sii fn. lila ; Ws , hes a4 Pisin ilu ~~ ed DIVING DUCKS. SUB-FAMILY Fuliguline. Under this head are included what are commonly known as the sea ducks, deep water ducks, or diving ducks, birds more fitted for a continuous life on the water than those heretofore described, and which, as a rule, derive their sustenance from water deeper than that frequented by the shoal-water ducks. As pointed out in another place, these birds have larger feet than the shoal-water ducks, while the legs are placed further back. These characters make pro- gression on land more difficult, but assist markedly in swimming and diving. All the birds of this sub-family may be known by having a web or lobe hanging down from the hind toe. This web or lobe is absent in all the fresh-water ducks. The sea ducks or diving ducks are supposed to spend most of their time on the salt water, but this is a rule to which there are a multitude of exceptions, and many of the species of this sub- family resort to inland waters to rear their young. Some birds commonly regarded as exclusively marine are found at all seasons of the year on great bodies of fresh water, as the Great Lakes and Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming. As stated, most of the members of this sub-family procure their food by diving, and bring up from the depths of water fish, mollusks and grasses of one kind 143 144 DUCK SHOOTING. and another. Many of them are, therefore, not delicate food, although, on the other hand, the far-famed can- vas-back, which belongs to this group, is one of the choicest of our ducks. There are various strongly marked anatomical and other differences within the group, which do not re- quire consideration here. They are described at length in various ornithological works. Mr. Elliot has pointed out that, as a rule, the notes of these birds are harsh and guttural. While the fresh-water ducks usually spend their time in the marshes and in fresh-water ponds during the day, the sea ducks, as a rule, resort to wide stretches of open water, where in moderate weather they rest dur- ing the middle of the day, resorting to their feeding grounds at evening, and sometimes feeding during the night and well into the morning. SS <= = i \ RUFOUS-CRESTED DUCK. Netta rufina (PALL.). The adult male has the sides of head and throat pur- plish-brown, darker on the throat, and changing to pale reddish at the front and base of the crest, becoming paler toward the tips of the feathers. The lower half of the neck, with a narrow strip running up the back of the neck to the head, the breast, belly, lower tail-coverts, upper tail-coverts and rump, black; darkest on the neck and breast, and with greenish reflections on upper tail- coverts. Back, grayish-brown, growing darker toward the rump. The scapulars, or shoulder feathers, brown- ish-yellow. Speculum, white tipped with gray. The bend of the wing, white, as are also the primaries, ex- cept the tips of some of the outer ones, which are gray- 145 146 DUCK SHOOTING. ish-brown. The sides and flanks, white, indistinctly marked with brownish bars. The tail is grayish- brown; the bill and feet red. There is a full, soft crest on the crown of the head. Length, 22 inches; wing, 10 inches. The female has much less crest than the male, and it is brown. The rest of the head and neck, and the lower parts, generally, are pale ashy, darker on the breast and sides. The upper parts are grayish-brown. Those por- tions that are white in the male are faintly marked in the female, or do not show at all. The speculum is white, as in the male, but much duller. This is an Old World species, very doubtfully at- tributed to North America. It may be questioned whether it has ever been seen here in life by an orni- thologist, but specimens have been found in the New York markets for sale, with other ducks which were known to have been killed near that city. No sports- man is likely to meet with it, but it is introduced here to complete the list of North American ducks. HNIWUN Wi tie SW) se By OS CANVAS-BACK DUCK. Aythya vallisneria (WIL1s.). The adult male has the top of the head and the feath- ers immediately about the base of the bill and chin, black; the rest of head and neck are reddish-brown, what would be called in a horse, mahogany bay. The lower neck, fore-back and breast, black. The back, lower breast and belly, white, very finely waved with black bars ; whence the name, canvas-back. Primaries, black. The tail, black, with a grayish cast; bill, black ; iris, red; feet, lead color. The female has those parts which in the male are red, brown and black, wood-brown, with touches of whitish behind the eye, and on the fore-neck. The plumage, generally, is grayish-brown, the tips of the 147 148 DUCK SHOOTING. feathers often being whitish, and vermiculated with dusky. The length is 20 to 22 inches. Of the American ducks, the canvas-back is easily the most famous. Its flesh depends for its flavor en- tirely on the food that the bird eats, and since for many years it was chiefly killed where the so-called wild celery abounds, the reputation of the canvas-back was made by the individuals that fed on this grass. As a matter of fact, it may be doubted whether in waters where this plant is abundant the canvas-back is any better than some of its fellows of the duck tribe, such as the redhead or the widgeon, which subsist largely on the same food. But the fame of the canvas- back is now too firmly established ever to be shaken, and it will continue to be regarded, as it has so long been, as the king of our ducks. The canvas-back is an American species, and has not even any close relatives in the Old World. In winter it ranges south as far as Central America, but confines it- self to no portion of the country, being equally abund- ant on both coasts, and in the interior as well. I have killed it on the Atlantic coast, as well as in Southern California; and during the migrations it is abundant in Montana, and generally throughout the interior. Years ago the canvas-back bred in the Northern United States, toward the west, probably in Minnesota, certainly in Dakota and Montana, but, as with so many other species, the settling up of the northern country has destroyed its breeding grounds, and it now, for the most part, passes far to the northward to breed, Dr. CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 149 Dall found it breeding at Fort Yukon, in Alaska. Mr. Ross met with it on Great Slave Lake; and other north- ern observers have detected it throughout the fur coun- tries. Besides this, Captain Bendire found it breeding in Oregon, and Dr. Newberry believed that he had ob- tained evidence of its nesting in the Cascade range. The nest of the canvas-back is large and well built, and is lined with down and feathers, plucked from the breast of the mother bird. The eggs are grayish-green in color and number from seven to nine. On their return from the North the canvas-backs reach the United States late in October or early in No- vember. They are hardy birds, and it seems that it takes cold weather to drive them southward. On the New England coast they are very rare, though a few used to be killed there. On Long Island they scarcely ever occur of late years, nor are they found in great numbers on the Virginia coast. In North Carolina, how- ever, and along the open broad waters which fringe that State and South Carolina, canvas-backs are very abundant. -They used to be so, also, in the Chesapeake Bay, but continual gunning and the destruction of their feeding grounds by frequent floods, which kill the plants on which they subsist, have made them there much less abundant than they used to be. The shoot- ing grounds in Chesapeake Bay and Susquehanna Flats, which a few years ago afforded such good gunning that they were bought or rented at fabulous prices, are no longer so much frequented by the birds, and have be- come much less valuable. 150 ~ DUCK SHOOTING. Like many others of our game birds, the canvas-back during the last few years has learned a good deal. Al- ways a shy and wary bird and difficult of approach, it has learned to avoid the shores, and perhaps is grad- ually learning to avoid the bush-blind. As its diving powers are great and it is not obliged to fly over the land to get to its feeding grounds, it spends its time in great rafts, on the shallow open waters of such sounds as Currituck, Pamlico, Core and Albemarle, feeding safe from danger, and during the morning and evening hours taking its exercise by flying great distances up and down the sounds, high in air, far above the reach of any gun. It is only in dull and rainy weather, when the wind blows hard, that the canvas-backs come in from the open water to seek the shelter of a lee of the marsh, but when such weather comes and the gunner is properly located, the canvas-backs will come to his de- coys as readily as any other ducks. In the same way, when—as happens usually at least once each year—a cold snap closes the waters of the sound, leaving only a few air holes, where warm springs or swiftly moving currents keep the waters open, the canvas-back and other fowl resorting to these open spots may be killed in great numbers. On such an occasion, in January, 1900, I saw canvas-backs in numbers greater than I ever beheld before. An account of this flight, pub- lished in Forest and Stream, is as follows: “T have recently had an opportunity of being brought into what I may call close association with the greatest of all the wildfowl, the superb canvas-back duck, and CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 15t within the last ten days have seen more of these birds and at closer quarters than during any season for many years. The locality was Currituck Sound, and the sights that I saw were witnessed by several others, old gunners, who agree with me that so great a flight of canvas-backs has not been witnessed for many years. “The first few days of shooting had about it nothing very startling except that one-half the bag of ducks consisted of canvas-backs. The first day was cold, gray and lowering, with a keen breeze from the northwest, and occasional spatters of rain, changing later to snow, which in the afternoon fell heavily. It was an ideal gunning day, and the birds came to the decoys in beau- tiful style, so that the first seven or eight canvas-backs were killed without a single miss, and for a brief and happy hour I was deluded into the belief that at last I had learned how to shoot ducks. The rude awaken- ing from this cheerful dream came soon afterward, and was thorough. I do not imagine that I shall ever again be deceived in this way. “The second day’s shooting was not markedly differ- ent from that of the day before, except so far as the weather was less favorable, and so the number of can- vas-backs secured was very much less. Saturday was a lay day, on which there is no shooting, and when we arose we found that the continued cold weather had at last had its effect and the sound was frozen over. There were many large air holes, however, crowded with birds, but the cold continued. The next morning many of these air holes had frozen, others had grown smaller 152 DUCK SHOOTING. and the natural result was that the ducks, geese, Swans and blue-peters which occupied the open water seemed crowded together as thickly as possible. Much of the day was spent on top of the club house, studying the waters with the glass, watching the movements of the birds, marveling at their inconceivable numbers. All around the horizon, except on the landward side—that is to say, for 270 degrees of the circle—birds were seen in countless numbers. Turning the glasses slowly along the horizon from northwest to north, east, south and southwest, there was no moment at which clouds of flying fowl could not be seen in the field of sight, and yet, notwithstanding the numbers of birds seen on the wing, the air holes seemed to be packed with fowl, and great bunches of geese and swans stood and walked about on the ice. “Away to the north were three large air holes, two of which were white with canvas-backs, while in the third one, geese were the prominent fowl, although many canvas-backs were constantly leaving and coming to it. Off to the southeast, at the south mouth of the Little Narrows, was quite an extent of open water occupied by a horde of geese, two large bunches of blue-peters and some thousands of common ducks. In the Little Narrows, a deep but narrow channel flowing close by the house, were great numbers of ducks feeding, and in- deed on that Sunday one might have sat on the boat- house dock and killed from thirty to fifty birds as they traded up and down the Narrows. “Tn the afternoon three or four of us walked down to CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 153 Sheep Island Point, not ten minutes’ distance from the house, where there was an air hole. In this at the moment of our arrival swam fifty or sixty ducks—- hooded mergansers, ruddies, mallards, whistlers, butter- balls and perhaps a dozen canvas-backs. Three or four hundred yards to the north was another small air hole, perhaps four or five acres in extent, which was crowded with canvas-backs. We sat down in the fringe of sedge about 60 or 70 yards from the nearest air hole, which had a length of perhaps 150 feet and a breadth of 100. The live birds in this air hole would make good decoys, and we hoped that if the fowl began to fly some of them would alight near us. Two of the four men were pro- vided with good field glasses. “We had not been waiting many minutes, when what we had hoped for took place. A bunch of 200 birds rose from the further air hole, and after swinging about a few times, dropped down in the one close to us. These were immediately followed by other bunches, and these by others; so that often two or three flocks would be swinging about in the air at one time, and all of them with our air hole as their objective point. They de- scended into it by companies of fifties, hundreds and two hundreds, and before long the open water was so crowded with the fowl that it seemed as if it could hold no more, and as if the birds that came next must neces- sarily alight on the backs of their comrades. “Soon after the birds alighted they began to dive for food, and, probably one-half of them being under water at any one moment, room was made for other incom- 154 DUCK SHOOTING. ing birds to occupy. The splashing of the diving ducks made the water bubble and boil, and the play of the birds as they sometimes chased each other made the scene one of the greatest possible animation. Presently something occurred to attract their attention, and all stretched their necks up into the air and looked. I think I have never seen anything in the way of feath- ered animal life more impressive than this forest of thick necks, crowned by long, shapely heads of rich brown. After their curiosity was satisfied they began again to feed and to play. It is impossible to convey to one who has not witnessed such a sight its interest and fascination. Here within gunshot—and when seen through the glasses appearing within arm’s length— were twelve or fifteen hundred of the most desirable duck that flies, entirely at home and living for the benefit of the observers their ordinary winter lives. “Looking with the glasses over the smooth ice away to the northward, we could see flying over the ice, or resting on it, fowl as far as the eye could reach. From the level of the ice where we sat, the ducks, resting on the water, appeared only as indistinct lines. The geese were, of course, larger and darker, and made distinct black lines; while some very distant swans, resting on the ice, were magnified by the illusive effects of the mi- rage, so that they looked like detached white houses. While we sat watching the canvas-backs, two or three small flocks of geese swung around over the air hole, but finding no spot where they might moisten the soles of their feet, they alighted on the ice just beyond it. CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 155 “We sat and watched the fowl until the increasing chill of the air and the sinking sun warned us to return to the house. As we arose without any precautions the canvas-backs at once became alert, and as we pushed our way among the reeds away from the shore the whole mass rose with a mighty roar of wings and a splashing of water that made one think more of the noise of Broadway when traffic is heaviest than any- thing else that I can recall. “That night it was again cold, and in the morning the Little Narrows was closed by ice, except for a few air holes, and the open water in the sound was still less. The ice was not yet sufficiently strong to bear a man, and yet it was too heavy to be broken through by a boat. Numbers of the shore gunners endeavored to get out to the air holes to shoot there, but none, I think, suc- ceeded. Those of us at the house shot at various nearby points, with moderate success, one man making the great score of sixty-six canvas-backs, besides some other ducks. “That night after dinner one of the party stepped out on the porch of the house to look at the weather. The night was clear and cold, brilliant stars twinkled in the sky; through the branches of the trees over the boat- house corner, and reflected in the placid waters of an air hole in the Narrows, shone the crescent of the young moon, embracing between its horns the dull globe which was yet to grow. The scene was odd and beautiful, like a stage effect of some medizval scene. As he stood there, delighting in the beauty of the night, yet nipped 156 DUCK SHOOTING. a little by the keen frost, a curious sound—like that made by a river running over the pebbles of a shallow— came to his ear. It recalled to the veteran salmon angler the murmur of the Restigouche as through forest and open and deep pool and murmuring shoal it hurries on its way to the Bay of Chaleurs. He wondered what could cause this sound in this place, and above all on such a night, and, walking down to the boat house, passed through it and stood on the dock. Here the ex- planation of the sound was plain. The air holes which during the day had enlarged were crowded with feeding canvas-backs, and the murmur of the water was neither more nor less than the splashing made by the fowl as they dived for food. “The freeze lasted for some days longer. The birds were abundant; but the weather, clear, windless and toward the last warm, was much against the gunning, since the fowl did not fly. Nevertheless one or two men at different times had good shooting—some of them better than they had ever enjoyed before or expect ever to have again. This shooting was largely at canvas- backs, since very few common ducks were shot. The freeze having closed their feeding grounds, they sat about on the ice, unwary and inert, waiting till the waters should open again, and in the meantime starv- ing. Under such circumstances no one cared to kill them. On the other hand, the canvas-backs taken were unusually heavy and fine birds. “Across the sound, on the waters of a neighboring club, very great shooting was enjoyed, though they se- CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 157 cured practically no canvas-backs. On the other hand, they made enormous bags of geese and swans, some- thing which no one can regret, since the geese and the swans at Currituck Sound are so numerous that they eat up vast quantities of the food which might better be consumed by the ducks. There are men long familiar with these waters who declare that the geese and the swans are constantly becoming more and more abund- ant and that ultimately they will occupy these waters to the exclusion of more desirable fowl. This, however, is not likely to occur in our time, and the prophecy may be classed with another, made twenty years ago by one of the most eminent ornithologists of this country, who declared that fifteen years from that time the blue-peter would be the game bird of Currituck Sound. The years have come and the years have gone, but there are still a few canvas-backs left, and it is possible that when our children tie out in Currituck Sound in just the right weather they, too, may kill a few of these glorious birds.” The food of the canvas-back, from which it takes its specific name, and to which it owes its delicious flavor, is the so-called wild celery, which is really a water grass. It grows both in fresh and brackish water, and is common at various points along the sea-coast, and also in the fresh waters of the interior. This plant, like many others, has a variety of com- mon names. Some of the most familiar in different localities are “tape grass,’ from the tape-like appear- ance of the long leaves; ‘channel weed,” as it fre- 158 DUCK SHOOTING. quently grows in channels where the water flows, not swiftly ; “eel grass’ —this name arises, it is said, by Dr. Darlington, from the habit which eels have of hiding under the leaves, which are usually procumbently float- ing under the water’s surface. The appellation “wild celery,” a local term applied originally perhaps only by gunners and watermen at Havre de Grace and vicinity, is, like many vulgar synonyms, a misnomer, as this plant is in no particular related to celery, which by botanists is known as Apium. Wild celery, or, as it is more generally known along the coast, eel grass, is not confined to the Chesapeake Bay or to the sea-coast. It is found in the Brandywine Creek, growing in slow- running water, and in many other interior waters. The scientific name of the plant is Vallisneria spiralis (Linn. ), the generic name being given in honor of An- tonio Vallisneri, an Italian botanist. It is a dicecious herbaceous plant remarkable on account of its mode of fertilization. It grows entirely under water, has long radical grass-like leaves from one to three feet long and from one-quarter to three-quarters of an inch wide. The female flower floats at the surface at the end of long thread-like spiral scapes, which curiously contract and lengthen with the rise and fall of the water. The male flower has very short stems or scapes, from which the flowers break off and rise to the surface to fertilize the pollen of the attached floating female flowers. The canvas-back is one of the swiftest of all our ducks. It is commonly said that they fly at the rate of ninety miles an hour, but, of course, this is a mere CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 159 guess, since no accurate observations have ever been made on their flight. It is certain that they proceed at great speed, and the novice at canvas-back shooting is very sure to shoot behind them until he has had a great deal of practice. The canvas-backs start from their southern home to- ward the north early in March and follow the coast and the interior northward, often reaching northern waters before they are generally open. On the breeding grounds they are practically undisturbed. ne A t \\ \\ \ \ i SSS eS SS SSS REDHEAD DUCK. Aythya americana (EvytT.). In general aspect like the canvas-back, for which it is often mistaken. The adult male has the feathers of the head full and puffy. The head and neck are bright reddish-chestnut, often glossy with coppery reflections ; the upper part of back, lower neck, breast and rump, and upper and under tail-coverts, black. The back, shoulder feathers of the wing, sides and flanks, whitish, cross-marked with black lines, slightly wider than in the canvas-back, thus giving the whole plumage a darker tone. The speculum is pale bluish-gray, bor- dered with black above and tipped with white. The primaries are dusky, some of the inner quills being dark 160 REDHEAD DUCK. 161 slaty-gray. The tail is dusky. The bill is pale blue, black at the tip, the eyes yellow, and the feet are bluish- gray. The abdomen is white. The female is a plain brownish duck, almost white on the forehead, chin and sides of the head. The lower neck, sides and flanks are brown, as are the lower parts generally, but the lower tail-coverts are white. The speculum is as in the male. Like the canvas-back, the redhead is a bird of gen- eral distribution through North America. It is very common in migration on the Atlantic coast, as well as in the interior and on the Pacific coast. Mr. Ridgway found it common and evidently breeding at Sacra- mento, Cal., in June, 1867, as well as in N evada, where he saw beautiful decoys made of its skin by the Piute Indians. It is said not to reach Alaska in summer, but is found breeding throughout the Hudson’s Bay coun- try, east of the Rocky Mountains. F ormerly it bred in great numbers in the United States, in Michigan, Wis- consin, Minnesota, Dakota, Montana and Wyoming, but the continua] persecution to which the redhead, with our other ducks, is subjected in spring has driven it from many of these ancient breeding grounds. There are some localities, however, in the Middle West occu- pied by gunning clubs where spring shooting is not al- lowed, and here the redhead and some other varieties of ducks stop and breed, with the result that in the autumn the club members have shooting far better than they ever did when spring shooting prevailed. Birds that have been bred on the grounds are gentle and 162 DUCK SiO0OTING. wonted, and act as decoys to their relatives migrating from the North, calling them down and giving them confidence that here, at least, is a place where they may be free from persecution. In winter the redhead is found as far south as Mex- ico and Southern Texas, but is more common further to the northward, and, indeed, goes but little south of the region where open water is found. It is abundant dur- ing the migrations on Long Island, but is not common on the New England coast. Each autumn and winter, however, redheads are shot in great numbers on Great South Bay, but rarely or not at all on Long Island Sound. On the eastern shore of Virginia, in Chesa- peake Bay, and on the sounds along the coasts of North and South Carolina the redhead is very abundant, and it spends the winter in great numbers in these waters, leaving them only when, as usually happens once or twice each winter, it is driven further south by the oc- currence of cold weather, which freezes the sounds. In such places, in all sorts of weather, they may be seen, high in air, trading, as it is termed; that is to say, flying long distances far above the water, as if examining the ground before they determined to alight. The great flocks of birds that do this trading are usually canvas- backs and redheads. The redhead is said by northern explorers to breed throughout the fur countries, and they have also been found breeding near Calais, Me. The nests are usu- ally built close together, in colonies, generally near the water, and are somewhat more substantial than ducks’ REDHEAD DUCK. 163 nests often are. The eggs are almost white, and are usually ten or twelve in number. - In many of its habits the redhead resembles the broad-bill or black-head. It comes up to decoys quite as gently as that bird, when it has once made up its mind to do so, and when about to alight the birds crowd close together, and thus offer the gunner an op- portunity to kill several at a time. When only wounded the redhead dives and skulks well, and is not always to be recovered. After diving and swimming a long way under water it comes to the surface, and perhaps shows only a portion of the bill, swimming off so low against the wind that it is not likely to be detected. The flesh of the redhead is excellent, and when it has been feeding on the same food, it cannot be dis- tinguished from that of the canvas-back. The redhead is a near relative of the European pochard, which it closely resembles, though easily dis- tinguished on comparison. This species is sometimes called the red-headed broad-bill, red-headed raft duck, and, oddly enough, Washington canvas-back. RANA pe Wi TH ie in BROAD-BILL. Aythya marila nearctica STEJN. The adult male has the head, neck and fore part of breast and of back, black; the feathers of the head and neck with a greenish gloss; rump, primaries and tail, brownish-black ; the speculum, or wing mark, white; middle of back and sides, white, cross-lined with black and white. The under surface of the body is white, marked on the lower belly with narrow blackish cross- lines and black beneath the tail. The bill is broad, pale bluish-lead color, with a black nail; the eyes yellow; the legs and feet gray; the length, 18 to 20 inches. The female has the front of head, immediately around the base of the bill, white. Those parts which 164 BROAD-BILL. 165 in the male are black are in the female brown. The back is much darker, faintly marked with zig-zag white lines. The bill is darker. Many widely different opinions are expressed as to the value of the broad-bill as food, and those who de- bate this question are both right and both wrong. In other words, the flesh of the broad-bill, as of most other ducks, is sometimes good and sometimes bad, de- pending on the food which it eats. Along the New England coast, where, to a great extent it feeds on shell- fish and other animal matter, the broad-bill is not a deli- cate bird, but further south, where its food is largely vegetable, and where its name is changed to black-head and blue-bill, it is a most excellent fowl. In the in- terior, too, it lives chiefly on vegetable matter. There it is known as the scaup duck, blue-bill, raft duck, big fowl duck, and is eagerly sought after. However, the tendency of this bird appears to be toward the sea- coast. It is abundant in California, where many are killed, but it does not seem to go as far south as its relative, the little black-head, and winters on the New England and New York coasts and in New Jersey, be- ing, in my experience, rather rare as far south as Vir- ginia and North Carolina, where the little black-head is very abundant. The broad-bill is a species of wide range, being found throughout North America, as far south as Cen- tral America, and also in northern portions of Europe and Asia. It formerly bred in some numbers on the northern prairies, and I have found its nests in North 166 DUCK SHOOTING. Dakota and Montana, though some of these may have been those of the next species. Dr. Dall found it breed- ing in Alaska, and it is supposed to breed generally through northern North America, in the British pos- sessions. The nest of the broad-bill is usually placed close to the water; it is little more than a depression in the ground, among the grass, lined perhaps with a few spears of bright grass, and with down from the bird’s breast. The number of eggs is six or eight; they are grayish-white in color, and when the mother leaves them are usually covered by the down. The broad-bill is abundant in Long Island Sound and on the Great South Bay, where it is shot in great numbers from batteries. It reaches our coasts late in October, and is usualiy found associated together in considerable bodies, which, however, are likely to break up into small flocks in rough and stormy weather. BIVTLE BLACK-HEAD. Aythya afinis (Eyv.). Exactly similar in color to the broad-bill, but smaller. The gloss on the neck is likely to be bluish or purplish, instead of greenish. The length of this species is about 16 inches, as against 18 or 20 in the preceding. These two species were long regarded as the same, and, indeed, as yet there seems to be no definite char- acter to separate them, except that of size. On the New England coast, during the migrations, the two are often found associated together, and this is true to a less extent further to the southward. At the same time the difference between them is well recognized by ornithologists and by gunners generally, and is ex- pressed in the common names applied to this species, 167 168 DUCK. SHOOTING. which Mr. Trumbull and others give. Some of these are little broad-bill, little black-head, little blue-bill, river broad-bill, creek black-head, river blue-bill, marsh blue-bill, mud blue-bill, mud broad-bill and fresh-water broad-bill. Notwithstanding the fact that most of the little black- heads are readily to be identified by their size, there is considerable variation in the species and sometimes these birds almost equal the broad-bill in their meas- urements. It is stated that the adult males can be easily identified, no matter what their measurements may show, by the metallic gloss of the head feathers, these being always green in the broad-bill and blue or purple in the little broad-bill. This metallic gloss, therefore, would seem to be considered by some naturalists a specific character. This is one of the most abundant birds of the south- ern seacoast, being found, in winter, from New Eng- land south to Florida, and even beyond that, to the West Indies and Central America. It is found, indeed, over the whole of North America, and, while breeding chiefly north of the United States, it is yet found in Minnesota, Dakota and Montana. Owing to its similarity to the greater broad-bill, it is not always easy to determine just what the range of this species is. Some Alaska explorers give it as breed- ing in that country, while others declare that of the many broad-bills seen by them none belongs to this spe- cies. However, east of the Rocky Mountains the nests have been found throughout British America, usually LITTLE BLACK-HEAD. 169 placed in swamps or near lakes, very simple in construc- tion and lined with down. The little black-head is one of the swiftest fliers and most expert divers of all our ducks, and the task of re- trieving one that has been wounded, unless one is pro- vided with a good dog, is not always an easy one. This species is quite as much an adept at skulking and hid- ing as its larger relative, and, on the whole, is very well able to take care of itself. The flesh is usually very delicate, yet the very reverse of this may be true in lo- calities where it has had an opportunity to feed largely on shell-fish. Black-heads seem to be equally at home in shoal water and in deep; they can dive as well as the canvas- back, and yet they are quite willing to puddle about through the edge of the marsh and to pick up a liveli- hood in company with the fresh-water ducks. RING-NECKED DUCK. Aythya collaris (DoNov.). The adult male has back of head and crown loose and puffy, at times showing almost as a crest. The head, neck, breast, upper parts and under tail-coverts, black; the head sometimes glossed with purple and the back with greenish. There is a more or less distinct chest- nut or reddish-brown collar around the middle of the neck, and a white spot upon the chin. The speculum is bluish-gray ; sides of body waved with white and black- ish lines. The under parts are white. The bill is dark grayish blue, with a black tip, and a very pale (in life nearly white) band across it, near the tip; the eyes are yellow. The female does not show the neck ring and the bill 170 RING-NECKED DUCK. 171 is less plainly marked. The black of the male changes to brown in the female. The fore part of head, all about the base of the bill, is nearly white. The lower parts of the body are white, sometimes marked with brown or brownish-gray, growing darker toward the tail. The length is 16 to 18 inches. The female of the ring-necked duck is very similar to that of the redhead, but the former is darker, except about the bill, where the pale markings are much paler, often almost white. The difference in the bills is char- acteristic, that of the female ring-neck being much the shorter and broader. The ring-necked duck is by no means so abundant as many of our other species and is quite commonly con- fused with the little black-head, which it closely re- sembles in habits. In fact, as a rule, gunners do not distinguish between the tufted duck and the little black- head, and when counting up their score at the end of the day always refer to this species as a black-head. Its common names indicate this confusion. It is called ring- necked scaup, ring-necked black-head, marsh blue-bill, bastard broad-bill, ring-billed black-head, ring-billed shuffler, and sometimes it is called creek redhead be- cause of its resemblance to that species. I have also heard boatmen, who had happened to notice the red col- lar about the bird’s neck, call it a hybrid between a black-head and a redhead. The ring-necked duck is found sparingly throughout almost the whole of North America. Its chief breeding grounds are north of the United States, but it probably 172 DUCK SHOOTING. used to breed also in suitable localities on the plains, and its nests have been taken near Calais, in Maine, as well as in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Its nest is built usu- ally in thick cover, close to the water, and is a neater structure than most ducks’ nests. The eggs are usu- ally of a grayish ivory white and number from eight to ten. This species is occasionally taken on the Califor- nia coast and also on that of New England, but it 1s no- wherecommon. Even in the South, in that paradise of ducks, Currituck, Core and Albemarle sounds, these birds are few in number. They decoy well and are easily killed when they come up to the stools, although very swift fliers. It is said that this bird is more abundant on our in- Jand waters than on the sea-coast. Even there, how- ever, it can never be called an abundant species. Its flesh, under favorable circumstances, is excellent eating, and if it were more abundant it would be one of the most desirable of our fowl. | a mm i, il ") | - " my x : i TU t ii i iG vil is nay et MN) oath Ye EAN Mes PTAC Vas tedeatdild i GOLDEN-EYE, WHISTLER. Glaucionetta clangula americana (Bonap.). The adult male has the head somewhat puffy, but the feathers longer on the back of the head, forming more or less of acrest. The head and upper part of the neck are dark glossy green, with purple reflections and a roundish and sometimes oval white spot just back of the bill and below the eye. The lower neck, fore-back, scapulars and wing-coverts, with the secondaries and most of the under parts, pure white; the back, long scapulars, and the base of the secondaries, black. The long feathers of the wings and their coverts are black- ish. The tail is ashy-gray; the bill black; eye yellow; legs and feet yellowish-red. The total length is about 20 inches. 173 174 DUCK SHOOTING. The female has the head and upper part of the neck brown. There is a white ring about the lower neck, and the upper breast is gray. The back is blackish- brown. The white on the wing is chiefly confined to the secondaries. The under parts are white; the tail is: dark brown; bill sometimes yellowish, but more often brownish; legs and feet as in the male. The American golden-eye has been separated by nat- uralists from the bird of Europe and called a variety, on no better ground than that it is slightly larger than the Old World form. Naturalists are not agreed on this point, and sportsmen are not greatly interested in such fine distinctions. The golden-eye is a bird of wide distribution, breed- ing throughout the northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere and in winter pursuing its migrations as far south as the Southern United States and even be- yond to Cuba. It is a bird familiar to all sportsmen, but from the standpoint of the epicure it is not highly regarded. It has been found breeding as far north as Alaska and undoubtedly is scattered in summer, in mod- erate numbers, all over the British possessions. It breeds in Maine and also in Massachusetts, but probably not south of that. I have found the golden-eye com- mon, in summer, in the high Rocky Mountains, not far south of the parallel of 49 degrees, but am unable to say whether it was this or the next species. The golden-eye is one of the few tree-breeding ducks, choosing for this purpose some hollow limb or broken- off stump in which to lay its eggs; these are pale gray- GOLDEN-EYE. 175 ish-green in color and are said to be from six to eight. Concerning the breeding habits of this species, the veteran naturalist, Mr. Geo. A. Boardman, said in Forest and Stream: “Fifty years ago we used to have six different tree ducks breeding on our river: Barrow’s golden-eye and the buffle-head (albeola) rare, but the common golden- eye, the American merganser, hooded merganser and wood duck abundant. About fifty years ago pickerel were put into our waters, which soon put an end to most of our wild ducks breeding, as the pickerel ate up all the chick ducks except in the few lakes or ponds that were free from pickerel. Near to Calais are several ponds and lakes that are free from those fish, and the tree ducks bring their young to those lakes for safety. “T was at the Kendrick Lake, and a lad that lived near by was with me. A duck (whistler) came flying low toward us, when the lad threw up his hat with a shout, when the old duck dropped a young one that fell near us that was at least ten days old. The old one went for it so quickly I almost lost it, but I got it and put it in my pocket fora specimen. We were near the lake, and the old duck also, when we saw she had four others in the water. The boy said if we keep quiet she will go away and bring others, or if she is afraid of us very much she will take those across the lake or to the other lake. They were getting near to some water grass, when the old duck made a flutter, caught one and went across the lake ; it was hardly two minutes before she returned and took another. 176 DUCK SHOOTING. “T don’t think she took them by her mouth, and the one she dropped, if it had been in her mouth we should have seen it. Mr. Eastman, father of the lad, said they often took their young from one lake or river to another if they thought them in danger, and said he had seen them bring the young from the nest to the water and then in their bills, but, to go any distance, or if they are any size, carry them pressed to the body by the feet, and the boys often by a shout made them drop their young. They brought me several different kinds afterward, wood duck, whistlers and hooded mergansers, but no young of the large merganser.” In a recent number of the Auk (Vol. XVII (N. S.), p. 207, July, 1900) Mr. William Brewster has given a most interesting account of the nesting habits of this species. The article is illustrated by admirable photo- graphs. The whistler, as it is frequently called, although re- sorting to the fresh waters during the breeding season, is much at home on the salt water in autumn and winter. It is an expert diver and feeds largely on shell-fish, and when it can obtain them, on small minnows. On the other hand, it readily eats grain and frequents the wild rice fields of the interior and the fresh marshes of the coast, and when it has lived on grain for some time its flesh is very good eating. The name whistler, so com- monly applied to it along the sea-coast, is given because of the quivering, whistling noise made by the wings while the bird is flying, which is often recognizable long before the bird itself can be seen. Other names for this GOLDEN-EYE, E77, species are golden-eye, from its yellow iris; conjuring and spirit duck, from the rapidity with which it dives; brass-eye and brass-eyed whistler, whistle-wing, merry- wing, great-head, bull-head, iron-head, cob-head and cub-head. While the whistler is one of our most beautiful ducks, it is not highly regarded by those who have an oppor- tunity to kill better fowl, and, like the little dipper and _ ruddy duck and the mergansers, it is often allowed to pass over the decoys without being shot at. It is not a bird that decoys readily, and, as a rule, offers little sport ; but at many points in New England and Canada, where better ducks are rare, its pursuit offers some reward to the gunners, BARROW’S GOLDEN-EYE. Glaucionetta tslandica (GMEL.). Adult male extremely similar to the golden-eye, but larger and with the head and upper neck bluish-black, with purplish reflections instead of greenish, with the spot at the base of the bill, and in front of the eye, tri- angular or crescent-shaped, and with very much less white on the wing, this usually being confined to two long bars with a short, black bar between them. The female is much as in the ordinary whistler. The collar about her neck is narrower than in the whistler ; the white on the wing is less and is crossed by a black bar. The grayish on the breast, sides and flank is wider in this species than in the whistler, 178 BARROW?’S..GOLDEN-EYE. 179 Barrow’s golden-eye is much less common than the ordinary whistler. Like that species it is a northern bird, but it appears to be much less abundant in Europe than even in this country. I have frequently seen, breeding in the lakes in the high Rocky Mountains, golden-eyes which were probably of this species, but I was never so fortunate as to have any of them in the hand. Like the whistler, Barrow’s golden-eye breeds in trees, laying eight to ten eggs, grayish-green in color. Mr. C. W. Shepard found this duck breeding in Ice- land, where, in the absence of trees, it built its nest in holes in the cracks and crevices of the lava. Barrow’s golden-eye has been found in Alaska, on the Yukon River, and at Sitka, and specimens have been taken at other points in the north. Mr. Boardman believed that this species breeds in the woods of Calais, Me., though as yet their nests have not been discovered. Mr. Nel- son states that it is a winter resident on Lake Michigan, and is probably found generally in winter through the interior wherever there is open water. A number of specimens have been taken on the coast of Massachu- setts. Mr. Elliot has found it quite abundant on the St. Lawrence River, near Ogdensburgh, and has frequently killed it there over decoys. He says: “The birds would fly up and down the river, doubtless coming from and going to Lake Erie, stopping occasionally in the coves to feed and floating down with the current for a consid- erable distance, when they would rise and fly up stream again. My decoys were always placed in some cove or bend of the stream where the current was least strong, 180 DUCK SHOOTING. for I noticed the birds rarely settled on the water where it was running swiftly. This duck decoys readily in such situations and will come right in, and, if permitted, settle among the wooden counterfeits. They sit lightly upon the water and rise at once without effort or much splashing. The flight is very rapid and is accompanied with the same whistling of the wings so noticeable in the common golden-eye. In stormy weather this bird keeps close to the banks, seeking shelter from the winds. It dives as expertly as its relative and frequently re- mains under water for a considerable time. The flesh of those killed upon the river was tender and of good flavor, fish evidently not having figured much as an article of their diet.” BUFFLE-HEAD DUCK. Charitonetta albeola (LINN.). The adult male has the head and upper neck black. From behind and below the eye a very broad white band or patch extends backward to the ends of the feathers. The black of head and upper neck is brilliant with metallic reflections of green and purple. The feathers of head are long and loose, giving it a puffy appearance, and they can be raised so as to make the head seem very large. The back is black, fading to ashy on the upper tail-coverts. The tail is gray, with whitish edges. The lower neck, entire under parts, greater wing-coverts, outer scapulars and some secondaries, white. The quill feathers of the wing are gray, the bill is lead color, the eyes brown and the feet flesh color or lavender. 181 182 DUCK SHOOTING. The head of the female lacks the extreme puffiness of the male’s. She is generally a dark lead color, or slaty, very much paler below, has a white patch on the side of the head behind and below the eye, and a white wing patch formed by the outer webs of the secondaries. The bill is dark lead color and the feet and legs grayish-blue. The male buffle-head is one of the most beautiful and active of North American ducks and is also-one of the most abundant, especially along the sea-coast. ft is confined to North America and is scattered over most of the continent, from the extreme North to Mexico. It is said not to be common in Alaska, but sometimes to Oc- cur on the Aleutian Islands, and Dr. Stejneger found it in winter also about the Commander Islands, on the Asiatic side of the Pacific. The buffle-head breeds throughout much of British America, nesting in hol- lows in trees, and its nests have been found on the Yukon River, as well as in many other localities in the North. Mr. Boardman believes that it breeds near Calais, Me., and young birds, still unable to fly, are said to have been killed at Pewaukee Lake, in Wisconsin. The butter-ball is an extremely restless and busy bird, and in the dull times of the duck shooting, when the weather is still and no birds are flying, it is very likely to dart over the gunner’s decoys and startle him by its unexpected presence. However, the butter-ball is so small, and also so swift of flight, and so expert in diving, that not very many of them are killed. They are by no means shy and often come readily to the de- coys, among which they alight, feed, and after swim- BUFFLE-HEAD DUCK. 183 ming about for a short time will fly off again. The dipper flies very rapidly, quite equaling in this respect the black-head, which is known for its speed on the wing. Usually it alights without checking itself at all and strikes the water with a splash, sliding along the surface for some little distance. Mr. Elliot’s remarks on the diving of this species are well worth repeating. He says: “As a diver the butter-ball takes rank among the most expert of our ducks, disappearing so quickly, and apparently with so little exertion, that it is almost impossible to shoot it when sitting on the water. When alarmed, with a sudden flip up of its tail and a scatter- ing of a few drops of water, it vanishes beneath the sur- face, appearing almost immediately at no great distance from where it went under, and either dives again at once or takes wing, which it does easily and without any fuss. Sometimes half a dozen of these birds will gather together in a sheltered piece of water and be very busy feeding. A few will dive with a sudden jerk, as if drawn beneath the surface by an invisible string, and the others will quietly swim about as if on the watch. The first that went under water having re- turned to the surface, the others dive, and so it goes on for a long time. Occasionally all will disappear, and then the first one to rise seems much disconcerted at not finding any one on watch and acts as if he were saying to himself that if he “had only known their unprotected state, he would never have gone under.’ ” Mr. Elliot states also that the flesh of this duck is very palatable and is excellent when broiled. In this species, 184 DUCK SHOOTING. as in others, the food regulates the excellence of the flesh. Mr. Gurdon Trumbull gives among the names for this very well-known species the buffalo-headed duck, little brown duck, spirit duck, conjuring duck, dipper, robin dipper, dapper and dopper, die-dipper, mario- nette, butter-ball, butter-duck and butter-box, diver, wool-head, scotch duck, scotchman, scotch dipper and scotch teal. .s ; i % nee. re ae er ZIP abn Oia tun : SOERET MAMTA ai ie cn OLD-SQUAW, LONG-TAILED DUCK. Clangula hyemalis (LINN.). Male, in winter, with broad strip running from the base of the bill, back, including eye, to about the ear, pale gray; at the ear darkening to black, which fades again to pale gray on the side of the neck; top and back of head, throat and lower sides of head and upper neck, all about, white; breast, back, upper tail-coverts, wing and long feathers of tail, black, the outer sides of the tail fading to white. The secondaries are reddish- brown; scapulars, pearl-gray ; under parts, white. In the male, in summer, the pale gray line running back from the bill, including the eye and parts of cheek, are as in winter, but the remaining parts of head, neck, 185 186 DUCK SHOOTING. breast and upper parts generally are deep brown or even black. The feathers on the fore-back and the scapulars are margined with tan. The other upper parts are black, or blackish-brown, with some grayish on the secondaries. The four middle tail feathers are black ; the breast and part of the belly are dark brown, and the rest of the under parts white. The bill is black, crossed by a bar of orange, and the feet are black. The female, in winter, has the head, neck and lower parts white, marked with dusky on forehead and crown, as well as on the ears, chin and throat. The upper parts are brown, many of the feathers being bordered with grayish. In summer the head and neck are more gray and the general plumage darker. The old-squaw, as it is commonly called on the New England coast, is one of the commonest of our winter birds, and is found on both coasts of America, as well as of the Old World. It is a beautiful bird, active, noisy and hardy, going little further south than it is obliged to to procure food, although occasionally it ex- tends its migrations as far as Florida and California. In Europe it is sometimes found, in winter, in the Medi- terranean Sea. The old-squaw breeds in the Arctic regions and has been found in Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Iceland and Northern Alaska, as well as in Hudson’s Bay. It commonly associates, even on the breeding grounds, in great flocks; and I have seen them in Alaska in June and July, hundreds together. They commonly breed on the waters of fresh-water pools, making their nests LONG-TAILED DUCK. 187 under low bushes, or among coarse grass, close to the water. The eggs are given as being only five to seven in number. The nest is made of grass and weeds and is invariably lined with down, which is of fine quality, apparently not much inferior to that of the eider duck. On their return from the North the old-squaws do not reach the New England coast until the weather has grown quite cold, long after the different varieties of scoters have come and established themselves in their winter home. Here they congregate throughout the winter in vast numbers, associating with the scoters and the eiders and yet often keeping very much by them- selves. The old-squaw is one of the most expert of div- ers and it used to be stated—and may be believed—that in old times it could not be shot on the water with a flint-lock gun. Even now it frequently dives so rap- idly as to apparently escape the shot, and instances are given of where a bird, shot at when flying low over the water, had dived from the wing and escaped uninjured. The common name of this species refers to its noisy habit. It is continually talking while on the water, and the flocks, when flying, frequently utter their musical cry. In almost all localities the bird takes its name from this call, which is difficult of imitation. Perhaps the Canadian syllables, Ca cd-wee, imitate the note as well as anything that has been attempted. South south southerly is supposed to represent it, but hardly does so. The old-squaw is remarkable for the rapidity and the irregularity of its flight. A flock starting low over the water, to go in some direction, will zig-zag hither and 188 DUCK SHOOTING. thither, constantly uttering their mellow cry and re- minding one, in their swift and darting flight, of the flocks of wild pigeons which used to be seen in the olden times. Beautiful and active bird though it be, the old-squaw is unfit for use on the table. It is always fishy, and no treatment with which I am acquainted will render its flesh palatable. It feeds chiefly on shell-fish, and its flesh tells the story. In the spring, when the birds are preparing to take their flight to the North, they prepare themselves for their long journey by extended flights ; as the local gun- ners call it, “trying their wings.” Late in the after- noon they rise from the water in great flocks and cir- cling high in the air, fly about for hours, performing -many beautiful evolutions. The migrations are usually performed by night and perhaps at no very great height above the ground. At all events, I recall that some years ago, in a New England village near the Sound, the weather-vane one morning in April was observed to be missing from one of the churches. A search re- vealed it lying on the ground near the building, bent and broken, and not far from it was the body of a male old-squaw, which had flown against the vane with such force as to break off the iron pivot on which it swung. HARLEQUIN DUCK. Fistrionicus histrionicus (Linn.). The general color of the male harlequin is leaden- blue, marked with black, white and chestnut, as fol- lows: Space between base of bill and eye, with a strip extending along the crown, a round spot near the ear, a narrow strip extending from below the ear a short dis- tance down the upper neck, a narrow collar around the lower neck, a bar across the side of breast, in front of the bend of the wing, a part of the scapulars and ter- tiary feathers, tips of some of the greater wing-coverts, a spot on the lesser wing-coverts and a round spot on either side, just before the tail, white. The collar about 189 190 DUCK SHOOTING. the neck, the bar on the side of the breast, bordered with black. A strip from the forehead to the back of the ~ neck, black, bordered with rufous. The rest of the head and neck is dark lead color, sometimes almost blackish, and with glossy reflections. The rump, upper and under tail-coverts are black; quills of the wing and tail, dusky; sides and flanks, bright tan, inclining to reddish. The bill and feet are bluish-gray; length about 17 inches. The adult female has the space between the eyes and bill and a spot behind the ear, white; the rest of ‘the head and neck are dark brown, darkest on top; wings and tail blackish ; the other parts reddish-brown, except the belly, which is white. The harlequin duck is one of the most striking and beautiful of our ducks. It is one of our most northern species and not very much is known about it. On the Atlantic coast it is seldom found south of Maine. It is a bird of the Old World as well as the New, and, in fact, is found over the northern portions of both hemi- spheres. British ornithologists, however, have de- clared that it is only a straggler on the European conti- nent, but that it occurs regularly in Iceland and Eastern Asia. On the other hand, we know that it is commonly found during the summer in the northern Rocky Moun- tains, and I have seen the birds, evidently mated, in the Sierra Nevadas, in June. There, Mr. Ridgway tells me that it breeds as far south, at least, as Calaveras County, California. All through the summer months in Northwestern ‘121q Suoqnpny wor paonpary ‘dVaHaat AHL ar apvulay 7 HARLEQUIN DUCK. I9I Montana harlequins may be seen spending their time, in small numbers, on lakes, often in the high mountains, where the melting waters from the glaciers form curi- our little mountain tarns at the edge of the timber line. Its nest has not been found in this country, and only twice in Europe; once by Mr. Shepard, who states that he found it breeding in Iceland “‘in holes in the trees,” while the Messrs. Pierson state that they found them also in Iceland in holes in the banks. It is altogether probable that in the northern Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains the harlequins breed in trees, while in Alaska they very likely breed in holes. Inthe summer of 1899 harlequins were seen abundantly on the salt water in Alaska, but all those taken were males. They were very common in Prince William Sound and at many points in the Bering Sea. An interesting account is given in the Zodlogist for 1850 on the breeding in confinement of a pair of this species in Melbourne Gar- dens, Derbyshire. Eight eggs were laid, which were hatched about the middle of June, and several of the young ducks reached maturity. Some of the names given for this duck by Mr. Gurdon Trumbull are painted duck, mountain duck, rock duck, lord for the male and lady for the female, and squealer. SSS 0) A TT Wee a a a iy ‘y ‘ ; a LABRADOR DUCK. Camptolaimus labradorius (GMEL.). In the adult male the head, upper neck, upper breast and wing, except the long quill feathers, are white. A strip on the crown, running down over the back of the head, a collar about the neck, the back, rump, quills of wing and tail and entire under parts, black. The cheeks are sometimes tinged with yellowish. The long scapulars are pearly-gray and the tertiaries have black margins. The bill is black, with some orange at the base and along the edges; the feet are grayish-blue. The bill is somewhat expanded near the tip. 192 LABRADOR DUCK. 193 The female has the plumage of a general brownish- gray tint. The tertiaries are ashy-gray, edged with black, and the secondaries, white, forming a distinct wing patch. The bird is about 20 inches in length. The Labrador duck, or, as it is sometimes called, the pied duck, is one of our North American birds which has already become extinct, and this only within a com- paratively few years. It was a bird of the sea-coast and was formerly not uncommon along the Atlantic, as far south as New Jersey, yet it seems never to have been very abundant. Giraud, who wrote in 1843, said of it: “This species is called by our gunners ‘skunk duck,’ so named from the similarity of its markings to that ani- mal. With us it is rather rare, chiefly inhabiting the western side of the continent. In New Jersey it is called ‘sand-shoal duck.’ It subsists on small shell and other fish, which it procures by diving. Its flesh is not considered a delicacy. A few are seen in our market every season.” In the years 1871, ’72 and ’73 specimens were occa- sionally exposed for sale in the New York markets, but even at that time the bird had become so rare that orni- thologists were on the watch for it, and as soon as a specimen was exposed for sale it was bought up. The pied duck was a strong flier and apparently well able to take care of itself, and its practical extinction took place before gunning was practiced on any very great scale. It was not especially sought for as a table bird, and no satisfactory reason has as yet been ad- vanced for its disappearance. The number of speci- 194 DUCK SHOOTING. mens of the bird now existing is very small, probably not more than sixty in all, of which about two-thirds are in this country. A very beautiful group of Labra- dor ducks is to be seen in the American Museum of Natural History, in New York, where five specimens have been handsomely mounted in their natural sur- roundings. a 3 it | : | << SELES DUCK. Eniconetta stellert (PAuL.). In the adult male, most of the head and upper portion of neck are satiny white; the space between base of bill and eye and the tuft running across the back of the head, dark olive-green. The space about the eye, chin and throat, and band about the lower neck, the middle of the back, the long shoulder feathers, tertiaries and secondaries, glossy blue-black. The rump, upper tail- coverts and tail, somewhat duller black. The scapulars are streaked lengthwise with white, while the tertiaries have the inner webs of the feathers fully white, and the secondaries are tipped with white. The wing-coverts, some of the scapulars and the sides of the back are white. The quills of the wing are dull black, while the lower parts are rusty-reddish, darkest in the middle of 195 196 DUCK SHOOTING. the belly and fading on the sides and breast to buff. The dusky of the belly darkens toward the tail, until it becomes dull black. There is a spot of blue-black on the sides below the bend of the wing. The bill and feet are grayish-blue. The adult female is generally reddish-brown, speckled with dusky or black. There are two narrow bars across the wing, formed by the tips of the greater coverts and of the secondaries. The speculum is brownish; under parts light brown, spotted with brown- ish-black ; the back sooty-brown. This very handsome duck is found in America only on the coasts of Alaska. It frequents the coast of Asia, however, and has been taken in Russia, Sweden, Denmark and Britain. It appears, however, to be only a straggler in Western Europe. It is distinctly an Arc- tic bird and more numerous in Alaska than in any other region. The nest is built on the ground, among the grass, and is well concealed. It is said to breed on St. Lawrence Island. The species is one that can interest only Alaskan sportsmen, but it is an exceedingly beautiful bird. SEC RACELED TIDER: Arctonetta fischeri (BRANDT). In the adult male the space immediately about the eye is silky white, bordered by a line of velvety black, be- foreand behind. The feathers between the eye and the bill are stiff and extend over the bill almost to the nos- tril. At the base of the bill they are white, changing to dark green, which grows paler toward the black bar before the eye. The crown, back of the head, running down a little way on the neck, pale olive-green. Be- neath the space around the eye a strip extends back to meet the olive-green, which is deep dull green. The head and neck, except as stated, are white. All the 197 198 DUCK SHOOTING. lower parts, including the upper breast, are pale leaden- gray ; while the whole back and wing, except the greater wing-coverts, the tertiaries and a patch on each side of the rump, are yellowish-white. The bill is orange, deepest along the edge, and pale on the nail. The eyes are pale blue or bluish-white. The feet and legs are yellowish. In the adult female the head generally is buffy, streaked with dusky. A strip of brown runs from the bill before the eye to the top of the head. The throat is very little streaked or spotted. The general upper parts are tawny, barred with black. The belly and the region under the tail is grayish-brown. The length is about 20 or 22 inches. The spectacled eider is another Alaskan bird of which not very much is known. It is a dweller in the far North, its range seeming to extend only from the mouth of the Kuskokwim River to Point Barrow, where it breeds. Another observer, however, gives it as occur- ing much further to the South, and says that it breeds among the Aleutian Islands, where it is a resident, al- though shy. The nest is built in the grass, not far from the water, and the eggs are from five to nine in number. Mr. Nelson, who has spent so much time in Alaska, and is very familiar with this bird, sounds a note of warning about it, saying that it might readily be so reduced as to become very rare. It is an extremely local bird, and with a narrow breeding range, and with the attacks continually made on it for food by the Eskimo it has every prospect of becoming scarce. SPECTACLED EIDER. 199 It is to be noted that the autumn plumage of male and female in this species are very nearly alike, dark brown with black mottling, and that the breeding dress does not appear to be assumed until toward spring. It is said that the flight of this bird is unusually swift, much more so than that of most other eiders, and that they usually fly low over the water. AY; > = I i a nA an ul i | h oul ih no COMMON EIDER. Somateria mollissima borealis A. E. BREHM. The adult male of the common eider duck has the crown deep black—split behind in the middle line by a strip of white or greenish-white—and reaching forward from the eye to the bill. The upper part of the back of the neck and the feathers back of the ears are pale green. The rest of the head and neck, with the fore-breast, back, scapulars, wing-coverts, tertiary feathers and sides of rump, white, often tinged with yellow or creamy buff. The breast is sometimes pink tinted. The other under parts, the greater wing-coverts, secondaries, mid- dle of rump and upper tail-coverts, black; quills of the wing and tail, brownish-black ; bill, dull orange-yellow ; legs and feet, orange. 200 COMMON EIDER, 201 The adult female is generally of a reddish-brown color, mostly barred with black, but the head and neck are merely narrowly streaked with black. The crown of the head is darkest. The under parts are a grayish rather than reddish brown, with darker bars. The tips of the secondaries are white, forming two bars across the wing. Length about 22 inches. The eider duck inhabits the northern shores of both coasts of the Atlantic. In winter it is found in more or less abundance along the New England coast, and I have seen it killed as far south as Long Island Sound. The eider breeds in Labrador, and to the northward, and in many parts of Europe is almost a domestic bird. The down, which is plucked from the breast of the female, for the lining of the nest, is a valuable article of commerce, and in an earlier chapter something has been said about the way these birds are protected and their down secured in Norway and Iceland. When seen along the coast of Southern New Eng- land the eider is often found associated with the scoters, there commonly known as coots, and when killed it is usually shot out of flocks of these birds. Mr. Gurdon Trumbull notes as names of this bird, and of the next, the terms sea duck and drake, shoal duck, Isles of Shoals duck and wamp (this being of Indian origin, probably from wompi, white). i HT TATA AR PAN, a i) a a : Neat i a ih H va “ m i a AMERICAN EIDER. Somateria dressert SHARPE. In this species the colors of both sexes are precisely like those of the preceding. The differences between the two lie chiefly in the manner in which the feathers of the front of the head meet the naked portions of the bill. In these eiders, on either side of the forehead a branch of the naked skin of the bill runs up into the feathers, which border it above and below. In the case of the common eider these branches are narrow and run up nearly to a point, but in the American form they are broad and terminate abruptly and bluntly. In the com- mon eider, therefore, the feather patches running down into the angles between the naked skin are broad, while in the American eider they are narrow. There is also 202 AMERICAN EIDER. 203 some difference in the shape of the bills in the two spe- cies, that of the common eider appearing’ slightly straighter and more slender, while in the American bird the upper outline of the bill in profile is slightly concave. Slight as are the differences between the two, they ap- pear to be constant and to be of specific value. The American eider is the commoner of the two along the American coast. It is said to be found in winter along the Atlantic as far south as the Delaware River, but this perhaps only in winters of unusual sever- ity. The American eider sometimes goes inland, and has been taken on the Great Lakes and in adjacent States, but there it is only an accidental straggler. Its breeding grounds are in Labrador and from there to the Bay of Fundy. The nest is on the ground, very often on small islands, at a little distance from the main- land, and is formed of moss, weeds and twigs. Often it is under the shelter of some little low-growing ever- green, or in the open ground, behind the shelter of a rock. The eggs are few in number, only six, and are usually deposited on the soft layer of down with which the nest is lined. When the mother leaves the nest she covers the eggs with this down. The young are dark mouse-color when first hatched and are at once expert in swimming and diving. As soon as the females begin to sit, the males leave them and assemble in flocks in the open water. The eggs are said to be of two colors—one a pale greenish-olive, the other much browner; the paler egg is sometimes spotted and splashed with darker. 204 DUCK SHOOTING. The eiders are deep-sea feeders and subsist chiefly on small shell-fish, which they bring up from the bottom, often at great depths. They gather together in large flocks, and when they rise on the wing do so gradually, running and flapping along over the water for some dis- tancé, much after the manner of the scoters. In fact, in many of their ways these birds remind us much of scoters. As might be inferred from their food, eiders are not desirable table birds, the flesh being usually fishy and very rank. PACIFIC EIDER. Somateria v-nigra GRAY. The plumage of the adult male is extremely like that of the two preceding species, though the bird is some- what larger, with a broader and deeper bill. The black of the crown extends forward in the white strip beneath the forehead branch of the bill, but does not reach as far forward as the nostril. In the male there is a large V-shaped black mark on the throat, as in the king eider, but in this species the V-shaped mark is longer and nar- rower than in the king duck. The color of the bill is deep orange, almost orange-red, fading toward the tip, 205 206 DUCK SHOOTING. which is yellowish-white. The legs and feet are brown- ish-orange. The female is pale brown on the head and neck, dark- est on the crown, streaked everywhere with blackish. The upper parts are reddish, barred with black. The length is about 22 inches. This eider is the common Pacific coast form, found in the North Pacific, Bering Sea and on the coast of Siberia. It is scarcely, or not at all, known south of Alaska. Inthe Arctic Ocean it is found as far east as the Coppermine River. It breeds throughout much of this range, not only in Alaska, but on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The nests are variously placed, some- times at quite a distance from the water ; at others, close to it. They are sometimes on little islands, and are abundantly provided with down. In Alaska the breed- ing ground is often in the marsh and sometimes the place chosen is close to human habitation. The male is reported as assisting in building the nest and as con- stantly associating with the female during the time of incubation, though he himself takes no share in that labor. The food of this eider is generally mussels and shell-fish, which it brings up from the deep water. When the young are hatched, early in July, the old birds begin to molt. The natives pursue the ducks in their canoes, striking at them with their spears. It is said that they do not kill many. Like the other eiders already spoken of, the fall plumage of the male is closely like that of the female, and we are told that the young males only attain their full adult breeding dress ~ =~ PACIFIC EIDER. 207 at the commencement of the third year. The Pacific eider is a large and handsome duck, weighing from four to six pounds. It is said to be loath to fly in stormy weather and to avoid rough water, resorting to the beach during wind storms or else taking to shel- tered bays and inlets, where the water is quiet. fist (ii Mia H Fall PRE ae KING EIDER. Somateria spectabilis (LINN.). In the adult male the feathers about the base of the bill, a small spot below and behind the eye, and a large V-shaped mark on the throat, black. The whole top and back of the head, running down to the nape of the neck, pearl-gray or bluish-white, darkest below, where it sometimes changes almost to black. The sides of the head, running back from the bill below, pearl-gray, and a patch over the ear sea-green, fading into white above and behind. ‘The rest of the head, neck, middle of the back, most of the wing and a patch on either side of the rump, white; the breast deep buff or cream-color. The greater wing-coverts, scapulars, or shoulder feath- ers, and primaries, brownish-black. The scapulars and tertiary feathers are falcate or sickle-shaped, bend- ing downward over the primaries. The hinder portion of the back, rump, upper tail-coverts and under parts, 208 KING EIDER. 209 black ; the tail is brownish-black. Except in the breed- ing season, the bill is shaped much as in the ordinary eider duck, but in spring there is a large, square, soft swelling on the bill, extending down nearly to the nos- trils. The feathering in the median line extends down further on the top of the bill than it does on the sides, in this respect differing markedly from any of the other eiders. The bill is reddish-orange, and the legs and feet similar, but slightly paler. The length is about 23 inches. The adult female has the plumage buff or tawny, streaked on head, chin and throat with darker, the streaking being most abundant on the top of the head. The breast and sides are somewhat paler, with black bars across the feathers. The back and shoulder feath- ers are blackish-brown, tipped with yellowish. The wing feathers are mainly black or blackish-brown, the greater coverts or secondaries being tipped with white, to form two narrow bars across the wing. The ter- tiaries are reddish on the outer webs. The rump and upper tail-coverts are tawny, barred with black; tail, black ; breast and belly, blackish-brown ; under tail-cov- erts, reddish, barred with black. The bill is greenish- gray and the feet yellowish. Like some of the other eiders, this is a bird of cir- cumpolar distribution, and is found in both continents. It appears to be everywhere much less abundant than other birds of the genus and is found chiefly in the far North, although it sometimes occurs on the New Eng- land coast. It has been found in Long Island Sound 210 DUCK SHOOTING. and on the New Jersey coast, as well as on one or more of the Great Lakes and on some of the far inland rivers. It appears to be nowhere a very abundant species, but is found in the Arctic Sea, on both coasts of America, and is not uncommon in Alaska. All the Arctic expedi- tions report seeing it and many have found its nest. It is resident in Greenland and it is said that it occasion- ally breeds as far to the southward as the Bay of Fundy. Mr. Charles Linden reports it as having been taken, on a number of occasions, on Lake Erie, and Mr. Nel- son gives it as a visitor to Lake Michigan and to other parts of Illinois and Wisconsin; while the Smithsonian Institution possesses specimens shot on Lake Erie and others secured on the Illinois River. In Alaska Dr. Dall has found it, though not south of the Bering Sea. It occurs, however, in the Bering Sea, on both the American and Asiatic coasts, not far south of Bering Straits. The king eider breeds far to the northward. Its nest is entirely simple, merely a hollow in the ground, in which pale green eggs are deposited, over which the female bird commonly places a layer of down. From what has been said of its range it will be seen that the king eider is not likely to come within the reach of the gunner, except as a very rare straggler. It is one of the most beautiful of ducks, and the male, if killed, can at once be recognized. This species feeds chiefly on shell-fish of various descriptions, and, as may be imagined, is not a desirable bird for the table. ae Nerd ©: Fie'e) 0g) 0 = 6) sm0 eae ew ee ———— AMERICAN SCOTER. Oidemia americana Sw. AND RIcH. In the adult male the entire plumage is deep black; the neck shows faint purplish reflections; the fore part of the bill and a line running back to the feathers, along the cutting edge, black; the remainder of bill, from be- fore the nostrils, much swollen, and bright orange in color; the legs and feet are black. The adult female has the bill entirely black. Above, the plumage is dark grayish-brown; the feathers of the cheeks, back and scapulars often tipped with paler; the lower parts are more nearly gray. The length is about 18 inches. The scoter is a bird of very wide distribution, being found on both coasts of North America, as well as on 211 212 DUCK SHOOTING. many inland lakes. On the Pacific coast it ranges from the Arctic to Southern California and on the Atlantic at least as far south as the Chesapeake Bay. Mr. Au- dubon, on the other hand, says that the scoter ranges along the entire southern coast and that it is found as far south as the Mississippi River. On its southward migration the scoter reaches Southern New England late in September, and often in open winters remains there through the whole season, taking its departure for the North in May. When, however, the weather is cold, and the shore blocked with ice, it moves further southward to open feeding grounds, returning northward as the ice disappears. Alaskan travelers have found this species as far north as Norton Sound, where it breeds, as well as on the east coast of Labrador. This species, with other scoters, also breeds in some of our inland lakes, nests of these birds having been found on some of the larger lakes in Dakota and the birds having been seen in abun- dance on the Yellowstone Lake, in Wyoming, all through the summer. The scoter on the New England coast is usually found associated with the white-winged and the surf scoters, which commonly outnumber it in the flocks. All these scoters are characterized by curiously swol- len and more or less hollow bills, which are highly col- ored. All of them are known along the eastern sea- board as “‘coots.” en nh ul i a | Mi ae } i a ae ue i i HH My Os il | UUM TT mn ii ED iH ni AMERICAN Vili Vil: SCOTER. Oidemia degland: Bonar. The adult male has the bill expanded into a promi- nent knob at the base on the top. At the sides the bill is sunken, as if hollowed out. This knob, with the base of the bill and its margin, are black. The sides of the bill in front are red, changing to orange and then to white near the tip. The plumage is uniform black, often very deep or often brownish throughout. There is a small white spot behind the eye and the secondaries are white. The female is uniform dirty gray, the wings darker than the body. The secondaries are white, as in the male. The length is about 21 inches. 213 214 ~ DUCK SHOOTING. One of the commonest of the winter sea-ducks is the velvet duck, more often called the white-winged coot. It is found on both coasts and also on the Great Lakes and some of the inland rivers in winter. It comes down to the New England coast late in September and spends the winter there in company with the other coots and the eider ducks. It is exceedingly abundant and is shot by the various methods described in the chapter on sea shooting. While migrating, or while taking long flights, it flies high above the water, often out of gunshot, but from such heights I have sometimes seen it brought down, either by the expedient of shoot- ing or shouting at it, or sometimes I have seen a gun- ner scale his hat high into the air, when the whole flock would dart 20 or 30 or 40 yards directly downward to- ward the water and then continue their flight. Usually the birds, when flying from their roosting to their feed- ing grounds, pass but a few feet above the water, mov- ing along with a strong, steady flight. The white-winged coot feeds almost exclusively on small shell-fish, which it brings up from the bottom, and the flesh is very far from palatable. The gunner on the New England coast who kills them, usually par- boils them for a time, and then bakes them, the result being a dish that is eatable, but is thought by many to lack character. The velvet ducks breed in Labrador and to the north- ward as far as the Barren Grounds. The nest, often made among underbrush or low woods, is a hollow in the moss, lined with down, and contains seven or eight ‘AMERICAN VELVET SCOTER. ats eggs. This species, like the old-squaw and other coots, spends much of its time, late in the spring, in pre- paring for the long flight that it must make to its sum- mer home. The hours from three o’clock in the after- noon until dark are spent chiefly on the wing, and often it is not much before the first of June when the last of the coots leave the New England shore. On the Pacific coast this species is found in winter as far south as Southern California and in summer to the Bering Sea. Inthe month of July I have seen them on the Gulf of Georgia in vast numbers, the birds being, no doubt, chiefly males, the females nesting somewhere in the vicinity. . The coots are regarded as exceedingly tough and hard to kill, and the gunners along the New England coast who shoot them commonly use very large shot, often 3’s, and sometimes 2’s. Birds that are only wounded, dive and skulk with great skill, and if there is any sea on the water, are likely to escape notice and not to be recovered. Often they dive, and apparently never come to the surface again, and it is believed that they cling to weeds at the bottom and remain there until dead. Some of the names given for this species by Mr. Trumbull are May white-wing or great May white- wing, pied-winged coot, bell-tongue coot, Uncle Sam coot, bull coot, brant coot, sea brant, assemblyman, channel duck. ca HP nit Hi ULELAGLULIU IAM HA VEEVGE Rh SCOOTER. Oidemia fusca (LINN.). In the adult male the bill is much swollen near the gap, but is not much elevated at the base. The general color is orange or reddish, crossed on each side by a diagonal black line, running from above the nostril obliquely to the side of the nail. The plumage is brownish-black, with a small patch behind the eyes, and a white speculum on the wing. The female is sooty-gray, paler beneath, and with a white speculum. The velvet scoter is scarcely to be considered an American bird, being only an accidental. visitor to our shores. It is an Old World species, which has, how- ever, been taken in Greenland. It is not a bird to be considered by the sportsmen, who will never meet with it. 216 SURF SCOTER, SKUNK-HEAD. Oidemia perspicillata (LINN.). The adult male is deep black above, changing on the lower parts to a very dark brownish-black. There is a white patch on the forehead, cut off squarely behind the eyes, and running out to a point a little beyond the gap of the bill. On the back of the head and neck there is another white patch, cut off squarely in front and run- ning down to a semi-circular ending on the back of the neck. The bill is swollen at the base, white and red in color, with a squarish patch of black on either side near the base. The nail is horn-color. The feet are orange, with dusky webs. The adult female is brownish-black everywhere, be- 217 218 DUCK SHOOTING. coming sooty or almost lead-color below, and some- times almost white on the abdomen. The bill is black, but little swollen, and, of course, the black spot shown in the male is not apparent. The bird’s length is about 20 inches. Mr. Ridgway states that sometimes in the adult male there are other white marks than those de- scribed, and sometimes one or the other of the white patches on top of the head is wanting, but these condi- tions are very unusual. This species, which is known as surf duck in the books, is commonly called by gunners coot, sea duck, skunk-head and also sometimes hollow-billed coot. It is peculiar to America and in habits and distribution does not differ markedly from our other coots. It is said to breed on the Arctic coast and to proceed south- ward as far as Bermuda. It is also commonly found on the Great Lakes and is not infrequently killed by gunners on the marshes to the south of them. Mr. Audubon found it breeding as far south as Labrador, in fresh-water marshes, and the nest was rather more substantial than that of many of the sea-ducks, being well built and lined with down. It contained five eggs, of a cream color. Nests found by Mr. MacFarlane on the Anderson River contained eight eggs. While vast numbers of coots winter on the New England coast, and seem to thrive there, numbers ap- parently equally great proceed further south, wintering in the mouths of the Delaware River and in Chesapeake Bay and out at sea. In these regions, however, where there are so many better ducks, they are not much pur- SURF SCOTER, SKUNK-HEAD. 219 sued, and, on the whole, it may be said of these coots, and of the old-squaw, that they are not rapidly grow- ing fewer in numbers. Besides the names already given, Mr. Trumbull tells us that this duck is called horse-head and bald-pate, off the coast of Maine; patch-head, patch-polled coot and white-scop, at other points on the New England coast ; muscle-bill, pictured-bill and plaster-bill, snuff-taker, spectacled-bill coot and spectacle coot, blossom-bill and blossom-head, butter-boat-billed coot ; while the females and young are called, at various points, pishaug, gray coot and brown coot. { Mo cay nen RUDDY DUCK. Erismatura rubida (WILs.). The adult male has the crown black, which color runs down on the back of the neck; the side of head, including cheeks and chin, pure white; the entire upper parts, reddish-chestnut, except the wing-coverts; the middle of the rump and lower back, greenish-brown, freckled with paler. The quills of the wing and tail are brownish-black; the under parts are silvery-whit- ish, something like the breast color of some of the grebes. The under tail-coverts are white; the bill and feet grayish-blue; length, 16 inches. The female is much duller; the upper part of the head is dark brown, paling on the sides of the head. 220 RUDDY DUCK. 221 Often there is a white strip below the eyes, running almost from the base of the bill to the back of the head. The chin is white. The throat and neck are brownish-gray, fading to silvery on the breast and belly. The upper parts are grayish-brown, mottled and speckled with reddish. The wings and scapulars are dark brown; the quills of tail and wings as in the male; the bill is bluish, often blackish, and the legs and feet, bluish-gray. The young male is still duller. The ruddy duck is found throughout North Amer- ica, and is one of the gentlest and most unsuspicious of our birds. It is resident in Northern South America, and yet it frequents the northern portions of the con- tinent as far as the 58th parallel. It is abundant in California and equally so on our South Atlantic coast and occurs often in Massachusetts during the spring migration. The ruddy duck, although it takes a long time to rise from the water, is a strong flier. It is, however, very much at home on the water, a rapid swimmer and avery gooddiver. The ruddy is a most gentle and un- suspicious little bird, and appears to pay no attention to the gunner, though he may be standing in plain sight, as it darts down and splashes into the water among the decoys. Until within a few years, gunners in our South Atlantic waters never shot these little birds, which were accustomed to come to the decoys and feed among them and then swim or fly away unmolested. Of late years, however, this has become a fashionable bird for the table, and, bringing good prices, is eagerly 222 DUCK SHOOTING. sought after by market gunners. Great numbers are therefore killed each season now, where formerly they were almost unmolested, and the result has been a very noticeable reduction in the numbers of these little birds. The ruddy duck has a great number of common names, most of which refer to its physical peculiarities or to its great gentleness. Thus it is called sleepy broad-bill, sleepy-head, sleepy duck, sleepy coot, sleepy brother, fool duck, deaf duck, booby and booby coot, paddy and noddy. From its tail it is called stiff-tail, spine-tail, quill-tail coot, pin-tail, bristle-tail, heavy- tailed duck, stick-tail and dip-tail diver. From its sup- posed toughness, or the difficulty with which it is killed, come such names as hard-headed broad-bill, shot-pouch, stub and twist, hard-head, tough-head, hickory-head, greaser, steel-head, light-wood knot and perhaps hard tack. There are a great number of other names, for which the reader must be referred to Mr. Trumbull’s excellent volume. Oe thi a Taha ears itsmerne Kg Berets ama Sat. =) “a ag AN malituldesaliit HN v9 The AT ~ ries ¢-= lh yd we? 2 of MASKED DUCK. Nomonyx dominicus (LINN.). The adult male, in full plumage, neck all around, back and sides, dark cinnamon-brown, the back and sides with the feathers broadly streaked with black ; the front of head, including chin, cheeks and crown, black, this color extending nearly to the back of the head. The lower parts are rusty, but the feathers of the side are streaked with black. The wings are brownish-black, with a white speculum. The under tail-coverts are brownish, spotted with black. The tail is dark brown; the bill blue, and feet blackish; length about 15 inches. The female has the head black, with one or two brownish streaks running back from the bill. The chestnut is paler, verging to yellowish, and spotted with black; the sexes are thus much alike, but the female is very much duller. 223 224 DUCK SHOOTING. The masked duck is found in North America only as a straggler, for it belongs in the tropics. It is a common West Indian and South American species. It: has been taken on Lake Champlain, in New York, in Massachusetts, in Wisconsin, Texas and Mexico. It does not appear to be anywhere an abundant species, as is its near relative, the ruddy duck. We are told that it does not seem to be at all at home on the land, and that when it walks it is in some degree supported by its long, stiff tail. Gunners should be on the watch for this species, FISH DUCKS. SUB-FAMILY Mergine. The mergansers, or, as they are often called, the fish- ing ducks, may be distinguished from all others of the Anatide by their narrow and round (not flattened) bills, always provided with sharp, backward-directed, tooth-like lamellz. Except for their bills, they are like the sea-ducks. They are birds of handsome plu- mage, always provided with a crest, which in the male may be enormously enlarged and very striking, as in the hooded merganser, or merely puffy, with brilliant iridescent hues, as in the goosander. The mergansers feed almost altogether on small fish, which they cap- ture by diving, and as a consequence their flesh is not at all desirable. Our species are widely distributed over America. AMERICAN MERGANSER. Merganser americanus (CaAss.). The adult has the head and upper neck greenish- black, with brilliant metallic reflections, the head being puffy and the feathers slightly longest on the back of the head. The back is black, fading to ashy-gray on the rump and upper tail-coverts. The primaries and secondaries are black, but the rest of the wing is chiefly white, crossed by a black bar. The under parts are white, tinged with salmon color, rosy or pinkish, which does not last long after death. In old skins, the breast feathers often become barred with ashy. The tail is ashy-gray, with bill, eyes and feet bright red. Length about 26 inches. 226 AMERICAN MERGANSER. 227 In the female the head and neck are reddish-brown, and there is a long crest on the back of the head, much more marked than in the male. The chin and throat are white, the upper parts gray. About one-half of each secondary feather is white, forming a speculum on the wing. The primaries are black, the flanks and tail gray. The lower parts are pinkish salmon-color in life, fading to white. The bill and feet are red. Valueless as food, the great merganser is certainly one of our most beautiful and graceful birds. It is a close relative of the goosander of Europe, and was long considered to be the same bird. The differences on which they are separated are very slight. The mer- ganser is a resident of the extreme North in summer. It is found in Alaska, though apparently not very com- mon there; and, in fact, it does not seem to be a very common bird anywhere, both the other species exceed- ing it in numbers. It is one of our most hardy birds, and one of the last to go South in the autumn ; and, in- deed, it will remain about air holes in the rivers, where it can fish, long after most other ducks have taken their departure for the South. It is well established that the goosander breeds in the hollows of trees, wherever trees are accessible, though some observers who have reported nests of this species from the far North, beyond where timber grows, state that it builds its nest upon the ground in the ordinary manner of many of the salt-water ducks. Definite information as to the breeding habits of this merganser was first given by Mr. Geo. A. Boardman, 228 DUCK SHOOTING. of Calais, Me., to whom ornithology owes so much. In Forest and Stream he has said: “Many years ago I was up at Grand Lake Stream salmon fishing, when I saw a large duck fly into a hole high up in a large birch tree. The log drivers said it was a sheldrake and had nested there many years. I was anxious to see what kind of a merganser it was. After the log drivers’ day’s work was done one of them by driving spikes managed to get up. The old bird flew out, and he brought down one egg, and said there were seven more. I then got the man to arrange a noose over the hole, and the next morning we had the old bird hung by the neck and the eight eggs were new to science. The log drivers said they had seen the old bird bring down the young in her bill to the water. Several years later Mr. John Krider, of Philadelphia, went with me to the same tree and collected the eggs. He was a well-known collector. Mr. Audubon was mistaken in his account of the nesting of this mergan- ser, since he describes it as nesting on the ground among rushes, in the manner of the serrator, having a large nest raised 7 or 8 inches above the surface.”’ Often, while travelling along streams in uninhabited parts of the country, one may come upon a mother mer- ganser and her brood of tiny young and may drive them before him for miles along the stream, the birds keeping well out of his way, and the mother watching over them with the tenderest care. It isa curious sight to see these little downy creatures run, as it seems, over the surface of the water, at the same time flapping their AMERICAN MERGANSER. 229 tiny featherless wings, but making extraordinary prog- ress. While the goosander, like others of its kind, feeds almost exclusively on fish, it is said that in the autumn its flesh is not noticeably bad, but that in spring it is ex- ceedingly rank and oily. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, SHELDRAKE. Merganser serrator (LINN.). The adult male has the head greenish-black, with some metallic reflections of violet and purple. The crest is a ragged one, chiefly on the back of the head; the feathers are irregular, but few of them being long. There is a well-marked white collar around the upper neck, below the black. The lower neck and breast are pale pinkish brown, streaked with black from above downward. The back and inner scapulars are black ; the lower back and rump, grayish, waved with black and white; the tail grayish-brown. The wing is chiefly white, crossed by two black bars. The primaries are brownish-black, and the outer webs of the inner secon- 230 RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, SHELDRAKE,. 231 daries edged with the same color. On the side of the breast, in front of the bend in the wing, is a patch of white feathers, margined with black. The sides are barred with black and white, and the rest of the under parts white. The bill, eyes and feet are bright red. Length about 22 inches. In this species the nostrils are situated near to the base of the bill, whereas in the goosander they are nearly half way between the base and tip of bill. This character will enable the observer to distinguish the two. The adult female has the top of the head and crest reddish-brown; the sides of head and neck somewhat paler, fading to white on the throat. The upper parts are dark ashy-gray; the sides almost the same, but somewhat paler. There is a white patch on the wing, divided by a black bar. The under parts are white, often with a pinkish or salmon tinge in both sexes, but this is by no means always present. The bill, legs and feet are like those in the male, but perhaps a little duller. Like the goosander, this species belongs to the Northern Hemisphere at large, and is found in Europe, China, Japan and other islands of the Pacific. Mr. Shepard found it breeding in Iceland, in company with Barrow’s golden-eye, and Old World observers generally have reported it as abundant in the North. It occurs regularly as a resident in Greenland, and, of course, in North America is quite a common species. It has been reported, in summer, from Alaska, and from Maine, and breeds in both sections. Mr. Mac- 232 DUCK SHOOTING. Farlane found it also breeding on the Anderson River, in the far North. The nest is reported to be closely similar to that of the black duck, and the parent often lines it with down plucked from her breast. Like the preceding species, the red-breasted mergan- ser is a tough and hardy bird, well fitted to endure our northern winters, and not proceeding southward so long as there are any open waters in which it can gain a livelihood. It spends much of its time on the salt water and associates more or less with the winter sea- ducks of the New England coast, but more perhaps with the whistlers than with others. The red-breasted merganser feeds altogether on fish, and for this reason has no value whatever as a table bird. Mr. D. G. Elliot, in his excellent work on North American Wild Fowl, gives a graphic description of their fishing, which is well worth reproducing. He says: “When engaged in fishing, by their rapid diving and manceuvring beneath the waters, they cause the small fish—if the schools are of any size—to become widely scattered, and many rise close to the surface. The gulls take advantage of such opportunities, and pounce upon their luckless finny prey from above, and then, with ducks diving into the depths and gulls plunging from above, the scene is a very lively one. I remember on one occasion watching a number of this merganser engaged in fishing in a cove, when their movements attracted to them a large flock of Bona- parte’s gull (Larus philadelphia), which hovered over the ducks for a moment and then began to plunge head RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, SHELDRAKE. 23 foremost into the water, one after another, in rapid succession, emerging, frequently with a small fish in the bill. The mergansers paid no attention to their fellow-fishermen, although at times a plunging gull would come perilously near one of the saw-billed gen- try as he rose from the depths; and what with the rising and disappearing mergansers, and the air above them filled with the forms of the darting gulls, execut- ing all manner of swift and graceful evolutions, the scene was very spirited and full of animation.” The red-breasted merganser is swift of wing, and as might be imagined, an expert diver. It frequently comes in very gently to decoys, dashing along at great speed, until it reaches the point where it wishes to alight, and then, without checking its flight, throwing itself breast down upon the water, and sliding over it for some distance. After alighting, it looks about for a moment, alternately raising and depressing its crest, and if it sees nothing to alarm it, goes to work fishing. There is no reason for shooting it, as it is worthless for food. Among the common names applied to this bird, in different sections of the country, are sheldrake, saw- bill, fisherman, pied sheldrake, shelduck and big saw- bill. HOODED MERGANSER. Lophodytes cucullatus (LINN.). Adult male has the head, neck, back and scapulars, black. The very long full crest is pure white, mar- gined with black. The wing-coverts are gray, fading to ash color behind, and the greater coverts are black at the base and tipped with white, showing a distinct black and white band across the wing. The secon- daries are white, the basal portion black, which gives the effect of two wide white wing-bars, bordered in front by two narrow black wing-bars. In front of the wing, on the side of the breast, are two black and two white bars, crescent-shaped. The sides and flanks are rusty-brown, or tawny, growing darker toward the tail, and crossed by fine, black lines. The under parts 234 HOODED MERGANSER. 235 generally are white; the under tail-coverts streaked with dusky. The bill is black, eye bright yellow and the feet yellowish. Length about 18 inches. In the female the head and crest are reddish-brown, and the upper parts are grayish-brown. The chin and throat are white; the flanks grayish-brown. There is a patch on the wing, white, crossed by a black bar, and the under parts generally are white. The bill is yel- lowish, darkening to brown on the margin and on the nail. The hooded merganser is one of the most striking of our North American ducks. It is exclusively a North American species and occurs in Europe only as a strag- gler. Throughout the whole of North America, how- ever, it is generally distributed, and seems to be no less abundant, for example, in Nebraska than it is on the Atlantic or Pacific coasts. The hooded merganser breeds over much of the country, in suitable localities. Mr. Boardman has found it breeding abundantly in Maine, where its nests were always found in the hollows of trees, the cavity being usually lined with grass, leaves and down. He has related the following curious incident in regard to the breeding of this bird: “On one of my collecting trips my attention was called by the log drivers to a singular contest between two ducks—it proved to be a female wood duck and a female hooded merganser—for the possession of a hol- low tree. Two birds had been observed for several days contesting for the nest, neither permitting the 236 - DUCK SHOOTING. other to remain in peaceful occupancy. The nest was found to contain eighteen fresh eggs, of which one- third belonged to the merganser, and as the nest was lined with the down of the merganser it appeared prob- able this bird was the rightful owner of the premises.” Mr. Audubon stated that the hooded merganser bred in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana; and Dr. Bachman be- lieved that it breeds in South Carolina. It certainly breeds in Florida. During its migrations, the hairy- head, as it is often called, is common in New England, and generally all along the coast, at least as far as South Carolina. In the marshes of Currituck Sound I have seen them in great numbers, sometimes in flocks of over one hundred individuals. The hooded merganser is a bird of exceedingly swift flight, and may often be taken at a little distance for a canvas-back or black-head, as it flies swiftly to- ward one. It is an unsuspicious bird, coming up read- ily to decoys, striking the water with a swift rush and, for a few moments after alighting, swimming about alertly, as if to observe its surroundings. Usually it flies with great directness, and is not easily frightened into changing its course. The hooded merganser is an extremely expert swimmer and diver, and it is a beautiful sight to watch a small body of them, as one sometimes may, when they are feeding without knowl- edge of the presence of an enemy. At such times the startling plumage of the male is seen to very great ad- vantage, and one is greatly attracted by the beauty of his plumage and the grace of his motions. HOODED MERGANSER. 237 This bird rejoices in a variety of names, of which water-pheasant, hairy-crown, hairy-head, saw-bill diver, little saw-bill, swamp sheldrake, spike-bill and cock-robin are the most familiar. The smew, Mergus albellus, was reported by Audubon to have been taken in Louisiana, near New Orleans, in 1817. The bird was a female. Since that date no specimens have been reported as taken within the United States. If the bird ever occurs on this continent it is only an accidental straggler. It is perhaps more likely that in the case of the specimen taken by Audubon there was some mistake of identification. However, the description is given here, taken from Mr. Ellict’s “Wild Fowl”: “Adult male, general plumage, white. A large patch at base of the bill, including the loresand eyes, lower portion of nuchal crest, middle of the back and two crescentic narrow lines on side of breast, outer edge of scapu- lars and rump, jet black. Upper tail-coverts, gray; edges lighter. Middle wing-coverts, white ; greater coverts and secondaries, black, tipped with white. Primaries, blackish-brown. Tail, dark gray. Sides and flanks undulated with fine black lines on a gray ground. Bill, bluish; nail, lighter. Iris, bluish white. Legs and feet, bluish lead color; webs, darker. Total length, about 1634 inches; wing, 7 6-10; culmen, 114; tarsus, 1%. “Adult female—Head and nape, chestnut brown; lores and cheeks, brownish black. Throat and sides of neck, white. Upper parts, brownish-gray, darkest on the rump; some feathers on back tipped with ashy gray. Sides and flanks, brownish-gray. Under parts, white. Tail, brown-gray.” ere Ee. WirEwrOwh SHOOTING. } ) ; ( . WILDFOWL SHOOTING. If it be true, as has often been said, that the enjoy- ment taken in any sport is proportioned to its difficul- ties and hardships, then we may readily comprehend why wildfowl shooting is popular. To be sure, there are other reasons; the rewards are sometimes great, and though no description of shooting is more uncer- tain than this, yet as man is a hopeful creature, and usu- ally believes that he will be fortunate, even though all his fellows are unlucky, men continue to go duck shoot- ing, even though the measure of success with which they are usually rewarded may be very meagre. One good day, or one successful expedition, will long re- main fresh in the duck shooter’s memory and will lure him on to make trip after trip, year after year, in the confident hope that some time this good fortune will come to him again. In the faith that his success will repeat itself, he gladly endures cold, hunger, wet, and even danger, over and over again. As the finest weather for duck shooting is what is usually denominated foul weather—that is windy, cloudy, or rainy, often with snow squalls and a tem- perature so low that ice forms—the gunner must always go prepared to suffer some discomfort. If his shooting is done from a boat and in a place where the 21 242 DUCK SHOOTING. wind has any sweep he is sure to get wet and may even be swamped; or if it should happen that he guns in a locality where there are wide flats which may be overlaid by a skim of ice, too thick to be pushed through with a boat, yet hardly strong enough to bear one’s weight, there is danger of a wetting, if not of some- thing worse; for the mud is deep and sticky, and he who is once mired in it will escape only with difficulty and discomfort. In old times it was taken for granted that the duck shooter should be uncomfortable, but of late years we have largely changed that. The older gunners who in their youth thought nothing of shivering all day in a thin coat under the icy wind, or of standing for hours waist deep in the water, when the flight was on, or of lying out where the flying spray reached them and froze as it touched their garments, now do none of these things. They provide themselves with thick, warm clothing, and with overgarments of rubber. They take lunches with them and sometimes even carry small stoves in boat or blind by which to warm their food or themselves if the weather becomes too bad. But with all these added comforts has come one great drawback which outweighs them all; this is the great scarcity of fowl. In old times, given suitable weather conditions, duck shooting on most of our waters was likely to be successful. Now, even with the best of weather, the chances are against success. In the pages that follow I have endeavored, by means of description and accounts of shooting trips, to give a WILDFOWL SHOOTING. 243 fairly accurate notion of most of the methods by which ducks are killed in North America. These methods vary to some extent with the different localities in which they are practiced, and they grade into one an- other so that it is not always easy to draw a sharp line between two methods of the sport. I have tried to cover the whole country and thus to make the volume of interest and of use to duck shooters wherever they may be. SWAN SHOOTING. Swan shooting can hardly be characterized as a sport, for the few swans that are killed are shot chiefly by accident, when they fly over points where gunners are concealed waiting for ducks, or at times when, with the geese, they come up to goose decoys. Most of those killed during the winter are secured in the Chesa- peake Bay and on Currituck Sound, where they winter in considerable numbers, flocks of two or three hundred sometimes being seen. On the occasion of a freeze, even larger numbers gather together, looking, as they sit along the marsh or in the air holes, like great drifts of snow. Swans are sometimes shot when standing on the shore of the marshes; this can only be done when the wind is blowing hard on the shore. Under such con- ditions the gunner is sometimes able to land at a dis- tance from the bird, and to creep through the reeds, within gunshot, since the swan cannot hear him on ac- count of the wind. Swans decoy readily, and occasionally the profes- sional gunners have a few wooden swan decoys on the house boats which they inhabit and in which they move from place to place, but nowhere, so far as I am aware, is the shooting of swans made a business. One or two of the ducking clubs on Currituck Sound have small stands of live swan decoys which have been captured 244 SWAN SHOOTING. 248 from time to time, which they occasionally tie out when they go to shoot geese, but on the whole the number of swans killed each year is very small, and does not nearly equal the young bred each season. There seems good reason for believing, therefore, that the swans are holding their own, if not increasing, and in many of the localities where they pass the winter, professional gunners aver that the swans are now more numerous than they were in old times. Swans do not dive, but bring up their food from the bottom by reaching down with their long necks and tearing off the grass with their powerful bills. They are wary birds and not easily approached. Sometimes they sit on the water long enough for a boat to sail up within shot of them, but this is unusual. They rise from the water slowly, flying a long way before they fairly get up into the air, paddling with their great feet, and striking the water with the tips of their strong wings, so as to make a great noise. As they can rise only against the wind, advantage is sometimes taken of this fact to sail down on them, and a shot may then be had. When changing from one feeding ground to another, or from the feeding to the roosting ground, they usually fly high, provided the weather is calm and bright; but if the wind blows hard, or it is raining or snowing, they often pass along within easy gunshot of the marsh, and it is on such occasions that they are chiefly killed. Each flock usually follows the course taken by its predecessor, and if the gunner hap- pens to be in the line of flight, and the weather condi- 246 DUCK SHOOTING. tions are propitious, he may have several shots during a morning or an afternoon. I recall having seen one man, a number of years ago, pull down three great swans from the sky just as the sun was setting. The note of the common swan is very different from that of his western relative. It is a plaintive, rather high-pitched call, often repeated, and can be fairly well imitated by blowing into the neck of a wide-mouthed bottle. On the principal shooting grounds of the South the boatmen are familiar with the call-note of the swan, and imitate it faultlessly. This skill often gives the gunner an opportunity for a shot which he would not otherwise have. Mr. D. G. Elliot, in his admirable work on the “Wild Fowl of North America,” has this to say about the notes uttered by the wounded swan: “The song of the dying swan has been the theme of poets for centuries and is generally considered one of those pleasing myths that are handed down through the ages. I had killed many swans and never heard aught from them at any time, save the familiar notes that reached the ears of everyone in their vicinity; but once, when shooting in Currituck Sound over water belonging to a club of which I am a member, in company with a friend, Mr. F. W. Leggett, of New York, a number of swans passed over us at a considerable height. We fired at them, and one splendid bird was mortally hurt. On re- ceiving his wound the wings became fixed, and he com- menced at once his song, which was continued until the water was reached, nearly half a mile away. Iam per- SWAN SHOOTING. 247 fectly familiar with every note a swan is accustomed to utter, but never before or since have I heard any like those sung by this stricken bird. Most plaintive in character and musical in tone, it sounded at times like the soft running of the notes in an octave: ““And now ’twas like all instruments, Now like a lonely flute; And now it is an angel’s song Which makes the heavens be mute,’ and as the sound was borne to us, mellowed by the dis- tance, we stood astonished and could only exclaim: “We have heard the song of the dying swan.’ ” Occasionally, if a cygnet should become separated from the flock with which it has been feeding, it shows itself very gentle, and can sometimes be called up to a bunch of goose or even of duck decoys. I have seen this happen, the bird coming in close to the water and passing over the decoys. It then turned and flew over them once again, when it was killed by the gunner. A wounded swan is very difficult to recover. These birds cannot dive effectively, but can and do swim, so as to lead the pursuing boat a long chase. When crip- pled, they usually swim right up into the wind’s eye, and as they can swim faster than a boat can be rowed, they often escape. The cygnets of both species of our swans are gray, and these young birds should always be chosen when the opportunity for a shot presents itself. Swan shoot- ing, however, as already remarked, is largely a matter 248 DUCK SHOOTING. of accident, and while I have known of ten being killed in a day, at a goose box, I have also known of whole seasons to elapse without a single shot being had by men who were devoting themselves to duck and goose shooting. It is well for the duck shooter to carry with him, besides the cartridges of B or BB shot, with which he will provide himself, on the chance of getting a shot at a flock of geese, a few cartridges of T or OO buck- shot, for long shots at swans. Although swans are such large birds, and rise with difficulty from the water, they nevertheless fly with great swiftness, and the gunner must recollect this, and must shoot well ahead of them. If the swans are fly- ing against the wind, he should aim at the bird’s head, remembering that a single pellet striking a swan in the neck is quite as likely to be effective in bringing it down as two or three shots which may strike it in the body. If, however, the bird is flying down wind, and high up in the air, the gun should be held somewhat in advance of the point of the bill. Allowance must always be made for the great size of the bird. It would seem to the novice as if a mark such as this could scarcely be missed, but this very size and the swiftness of the bird’s flight are likely to deceive. As swans are usually shot overhead, they sometimes fall almost in the gunner’s blind, or, at all events, very close to him. It is an impressive sight to see one of these great birds, struck with a fatal charge, come tum- bling to the earth. Its great size, its broad expanse of SWAN SHOOTING. 249 wing and its long neck make it appear even larger than it really is, and when it strikes the ground it does so with a thud which seems to shake the marsh. I once killed and weighed an American swan which turned the scale at 25 pounds; how much larger they may grow, I do not know. At all events, they are royal birds. alee NAAM Deh ——. = fer a Soe ee GOOSE SHOOTING. The wild goose has long been proverbial for his shy- ness and wariness, and he well deserves the reputation that he has gained, and yet sometimes he is found to be “as silly as a goose.” So that the gunner who follows the geese enough to see much of them, will find that at one time great acuteness and at another a singular lack of suspicion are present in the ordinary wild goose. Few birds are more difficult to approach than these, and yet few come more readily to decoys or are more easily lured from their course by an imitation of their cry. Constantly pursued for food, their experience, almost from the egg shell, has taught them suspicion. On the breeding grounds in the North, at the time when the young geese are well grown, but as yet unable to fly, great numbers are killed by Indians and Eskimo, who, assisted by their dogs, drive the birds out of the shallow pools in the marshes, where they dwell, and spear them with their bone tridents, or catch them in nets, or kill them with sticks. In the same way many of the adults also are destroyed during the molting season. Several instances have occurred where swans and geese—killed by gunners in the United States—still bore in their bodies evidences of having been wounded by the aborigines of the far North. The United States 250 GOOSE SHOOTING. 251 National Museum has a number of examples of this kind, where the birds’ bodies have been pierced by long arrow heads, which remained in the wound and were covered up in its healing. Many years ago there was figured in Forest and Stream the wing of a swan which still bore, lying between the radius and ulna, a long copper arrow head, which must have been shot into the bird somewhere in the far Northwest. The old wound had healed, and the bird when killed was in good con- dition. Notwithstanding the annual destruction by the na- tives, there are always left vast numbers of geese to take their flight southward at the approach of winter, but when they reach the northern confines of the United States they find awaiting them a horde of gunners bent on their destruction. ON THE STUBBLES. In the interior, and especially on the high plains of the wheat-producing belt of Manitoba, the Dakotas arid Nebraska, geese are shot in two principal ways. Of these, the more common is shooting them in the grain fields from which the crops have been harvested, to which the birds resort for food. They pass the night in lakes or rivers, not far from the feeding ground, and in the early morning take their flight to the stub- bles, there to feed during the day. The gunners pre- pare as blinds, or places of concealment, pits dug in the 252 DUCK SHOOTING. fields, the earth being carried away to some distance and scattered over the ground, so that there shall be no fresh soil exposed to attract the attention of the flocks and render them suspicious. About the pits are set up the decoys, which usually consist of sheet-iron profiles of geese, on sharp-pointed iron standards implanted in the ground, so that when seen from the direction from which the birds are coming, they look like a flock of geese standing on the ground. On these, and on his power of calling, the gunner, hidden in the pit, de- pends. He is in his blind by daylight, and soon after this the flight begins. If he has had time to study the habits of the birds, his blind is placed directly in the line of flight, between the roosting and the feeding ground, and his decoys are likely to call down to within gun- shot many of the passing flocks. Sometimes, if two or three men are shooting together, they will dig their pits about a gun-shot apart, and at right angles to the line of the birds’ flight. In such a case they plant their de- coys midway between the pits, with the result that the flocks which come down to them are likely to offer shots to the occupants of the two pits between which they fly. While most of the birds killed are likely to fall at once, there will still be many which, struck by one or two pellets, or hit too far behind, will carry off the shot, and, gradually lowering their flight, will come to the ground a long way from the pit. It is important, therefore, that each flock shot at should be watched as GOOSE SHOOTING. 253 it goes away, in order that birds hard hit, but still able to proceed for some distance, may be seen to separate themselves from the flock and to come down. Unless very carefully marked, such birds are likely to be lost to the gunner, unless he is provided with a dog. At every lull in the flight, it is the practice to leave the pit and go out to gather the dead geese; and toward the middle of the day, when the morning flight has ceased, the more distant ground should be carefully looked over by the gunner, and, if practicable, systemat- ically hunted out with a dog. The result of this search will often add largely to the bag. Sometimes, instead of digging pits in the stubble fields, the gunners conceal themselves in the straw stacks which may still be standing in the field, and do their shooting from them. The straw stacks having been there before the geese came in the fall, are familiar objects to the birds, and cause them no alarm. Often they pass close over them or feed on the ground near them. Where these stacks are used for hiding places, the decoys are scattered around them in the most con- venient situation. It is not common for the passing flocks to alight with the decoys in the stubble fields ; usually by the time that the birds have approached close to them, the decoys are recognized as deceptions, and the flock turns off. Goose shooting in the wheat stubbles is also practiced in parts of Washington. Pits are dug and decoys put out, just as in the stubbles of Dakota and Nebraska, and the birds come readily to the decoys. 254 DUCK SHOOTING. ON THE SAND-BARS. Sand-bar shooting, which was formerly practiced with great success on some of the larger rivers of the West, especially on the Platte, is somewhat similar in character to the shooting on the feeding grounds, ex- cept that it takes place early in the morning and late in the afternoon, when the birds come to the river to drink, as well as to provide themselves with the sand and gravel which are as necessary to them as food. The blind may be a hole dug in the sand-bar, or perhaps a pile of drift-wood and trash, in which the gunner con- ceals himself. The decoys are similar to those used in stubble shooting, and are placed between the water and the blind. The birds usually come in each day at about the same hour, and so regular are their habits that one familiar with a locality could almost set his watch by their arrival. In this shooting the birds are much more disposed to come to the decoys than in stubble shooting, and often appear to wish to alight with them. The birds commonly killed in this form of shooting are the Canada goose, Hutchins’s goose, the white- fronted goose, or prairie brant, the blue goose and the snow goose. If the geese are no longer killed on the Platte River in their old numbers, they have not altogether deserted that stream in their southern journey. They still resort to it, but overshooting has taught them caution, and the methods by which they are killed have wholly A GOLDEN-EYE NESTING PLACE. (See p. 176.) Brewster. Photographed by Wm. GOOSE SHOOTING. 258 changed. At the present time they go into the river late, pay no attention whatever to decoys, and have be- come so wary that shooting them on the sand-bars is hardly attempted. When they rise they no longer circle about, but at once get up in the air as high as possible, keeping directly over the middle of the river, and so usually out of shot of concealed gunners. Many and bitter have been the complaints of late years by the men who used to go goose shooting to this famous ground, but the birds have learned their lesson well, and it may be doubted if sand-bar shooting will ever again be prac- — ticed on the Platte with any great degree of success. The geese now killed in the vicinity of that river are secured chiefly by stubble shooting, much as they are captured in Dakota, and a recent account of these meth- ods is given in the following article contributed to Forest and Stream in 1899, by a writer who signs him- self “Invisible.” He says: Readers who have been there need not be told of the past glories of duck and goose shooting on the wide- flowing Platte in Nebraska, but to those who have not hunted on the once famous river, a description of the stream, the country and the methods employed to bag the wary honkers may be interesting. The Platte is a shallow, wide stream from one-half mile to one mile wide in some places, and the bottom is entirely of sand. In late April and in May and June it rises or gets on a “boom,”’ as it is generally called. Then the water is from three to six feet deep in all the main part of the river, and in the main channel from ten to 256 DUCK SHOOTING. even fifteen feet in some particular places. A beautiful valley, smooth and level as a floor, stretches away for miles from both sides in some places, and in others only on one side, when the high bluffs come up to the bank. Beyond this level valley are the high lands, irregular lines of sand bluffs, and on the high table-land beyond is the feeding ground of the great army of geese and ducks that frequent the Platte every spring and some- times in the fall. Geese and ducks are not as plentiful here now as years ago; while there are a good many birds here every favorable spring, there is not one to the fifty there used to be in years gone by. Ten and fifteen years ago fifteen to twenty geese were a common thing for one man to kill in one day, or even in a half day’s hunt. A friend claimed to have killed fifty-two geese one afternoon from 2 o’clock to sundown, and no one who knows the man or the numbers of birds doubts the claim. But these are past supplies, never to be seen on the Platte again. At the present time on stormy days, if a hunter is in a good place, he may be able to bag in the course of a day ten, or maybe fifteen or twenty, geese, and as many ducks. But these days and chances are, indeed, very rare. Very much oftener the hunter comes in with one goose and a few ducks, or if it be a bad day he comes in empty-handed. I live within one day’s drive of the river, and in the spring a party of four or five go to the old Platte for a two or three weeks’ hunt and a general good time. Landing at the river about 4 o’clock in the evening, after a good drive of thirty-five miles, we are made wel- GOOSE SHOOTING. 257 come by an old friend who lives about forty rods from the river; we put up our team and then commence to pitch tent, for we come prepared to camp out. While working around camp we see long strings of ducks and - geese come sailing leisurely in from their feeding grounds out on the bluffs and in the valley; old-time memories are revived, and we all work with a vim to get the tent up and banked and ditched around; we carry hay to make our bed, and then get supper. When this is all done it is too late to do any shooting. Shells are gotten out, guns are examined, hunting suits are laid out handy, and everything is put in readiness for an early start in the morning. While all this was going on, ducks and geese have been alighting in the river, and several hundred geese are out on the sand-bars, making merry music for our ears. The musical honk- a-honk is heard after it gets dark, as some tardy mem- bers come in to their roost on the sand-bars. We go to bed with the intention of having goose for dinner next day if Dame Fortune shall see fit to send a flock our way. We all arise next morning before day- light, eat a hasty breakfast, don dead grass color suits, and, with a dozen decoys each and a gun, sally forth, going out where we know they feed in a corn or wheat field. Arriving at the field, we dig a pit, place the loose dirt where it won't be conspicuous, then put out the decoys, and settle ourselves comfortably and await the coming of a flock of honkers, or perhaps ducks. We are in sight of the rim, and pretty soon we see some rise up and start for the feeding grounds. We 258 DUCK SHOOTING. watch every movement made by the flock. They rise high up as they clear the river bank and head directly for us. We crouch low in the blind with guns in readi- ness, and goose-call to our lips. They don’t see the decoys, for it is not very light yet. As they come nearer they come down a trifle; yes, they see the decoys. The leader sets his wings and drops below the others, and they sail gracefully for the decoys. But, alas! they turn, about the time we are sure we have a shot, and by a graceful sweep go by to one side out of range, and alight just back of us about 150 yards. However, we settle down as we see another flock get up out of the river. They go up and start out on the same line with the other flock. They head directly for the other flock on the ground behind me, and, reassured by seeing the others there, they drop down within 40 yards of the ground, and come almost directly over me. I rise with gun in hand, four reports in quick succession, and three noble Canada geese fall to the ground; and one other starts, then rises and starts on, but one more shot and he comes tumbling down to earth. The fun has started in earnest. The geese come out in small flocks, and the guns are booming in every direction. In two hours the flight has ceased, and we gather up our geese and decoys and start for camp. We sum up at camp: four guns have bagged eleven geese and five ducks in the two hours’ shoot. The next day the wind blows hard from the north, and snow is falling in large flakes. It is cold; but we start out to try our luck about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. GOOSE SHOOTING. 280 We separate and take up position in the willow thickets that abound along the river bank. With the river on the north of us, feeding grounds are a great deal closer on the south side, so, contrary to their regular habits, the birds come out with the wind, and come back flying low, but with no good results; so I concluded to get in a good sheltered place and wait for some to come over, if I had to wait all day. They flew on all sides, ducks and geese both, some barely clearing the ground. Just to the south of me was open ground for about 200 yards, then a high bluff with some trees growing on the sides and rising above the table land above. My patience was nearly exhausted, when just behind these trees came a flock of mallards. I did not see them till they rose to clear these trees. As I stood in a thick stand of willows, they never saw me, but came on just a little to my left about 40 yards high. They looked big and grand. I could distinguish all their fine colorings as they came closer. I rose up and made a double on two fine drakes that were nearest to me. Having re- trieved these, I had not long to wait before a lone pin- tail came along, and I had a fine shot at him. Shooting was good until dark. I bagged seventeen ducks and one brant. One of the other boys got sixteen ducks, and the others all had a respectable bag of ducks. We had another stormy day while on this trip, and these two days were my best, in fact the only days when we bagged very many ducks. We got geese almost every morning and evening until our return home. Ducks do not seem to decoy on the feeding grounds 260 DUCK SHOOTING. here, but on some ponds of still water they decoy splen- didly, and good bags may be made on any decent day. After the geese had, in large measure, been driven away from the Platte, good shooting was had on the Arkansas River. The method of gunning on this stream was to choose an island as near the centre of the river as possible, where there was a good sand-bar for decoys, within thirty or forty yards of the island, and to dig a pit and shoot the geese as they came in to the decoys. Often the shooting was very good here, and frequently the bag was a mixed one, for ducks fre- quently came up within shot, lured by the goose decoys. In this shooting, bags of from 25 to 40 geese and 15 to 20 ducks were often made. WITH LIVE DECOYS. Except in a few places in the East, goose shooting is hardly at all practiced, and to the gunner of the north- east coast a goose is the greatest of all feathered game. By accident a few are killed every year at various points on the New England coast, but at one or two places in Massachusetts, and from Maryland southward, many geese are killed annually. In these localities it is desirable and almost necessary, however, to use live goose decoys. These are set out within gun-shot of the blind, and their movements and vociferous calling lure down theit wild relatives, which GOOSE SHOOTING. 261 often alight among them, and begin to fight or to play with them. In the South the most common method is to have a water-tight box built on some shoal, or at the edge of some sandy beach, in a place where the geese are ac- customed to congregate. Such a box is commonly four feet deep, and is, of course, open at the top. Usually it is large enough for two men, who are provided with a seat, and with a shelf in front, on which they can place ammunition.