Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-09
w. B. Moses & Sons. ;
+ Street, Corner nth. !:
THE WARY BLACK DUCK.
Habits of a Bird That Tests Skill and
Patience of a Hunter.
From the Connecticut Monthly Record.

From the Connecticut Menthly Record.
The black duck is Infinitely wary and in
telligent; he is valuable prize; the hunt
Is thrilling and adds TO your fund of whole
some memories. To outwit its vigilance
and win the privilege of handling his firm
set, wid-scented plumage requires a thor
ough experience of his habits, an eager love
OF hunting and the practice Of the Christian
qualities of patience, watchfulness, long
suffering and endurance Withal a quick
eye Is needed and such shooting Judgment
US enables one, partly by sight, partly by
sound, to hit whzzing streak of feathers
travelling through the darkness at forty
miles an hour
This clean cut water fowl IS n might
rover. BY day he rests far out In the
sound, where his watchfulness protects him
from large craft, and where 1t is perilous
Tor duckling boat-getting caught off
shore by q northwest wind is very serious
ard cardinal calamity of the longshore-
mans litany. CLAIMS, mussels snails and
certain marine roots growing at the shores
and In the marshes are his food and he
eats no fish, but feeds a the waters edge
When dusk comes he sets out for his
restaurant, selecting IL as the tide wind
and weather promise best. Sometimes he
flies toward the shore, to drift on the food
ing tide toward the beach; sometimes he
Hes into the marshes--those broad acres
of salt meadow drained by a labyrinth of
creeks, so common IN southern Connecticut.
sometimes he flies miles inland to country
mill ponds and forest lakes
Our black duck has compound lenses for
eyes and travels by sight rot by instinct
In fog he will not stir unless alarmed:
dark nights he flies low but keeps well up
when the skies are nloonlit When he flies
over a meadow he sees all that is going on
there; he notices and remembers land
marks. and you viii rarely shoot one from
Il newly built blind His ears are keen as
an owls.
An cid Maine guide-a close observer
once told me that black ducks can smell
like fox" but John Burroughs. the dean
OF the American feathered college, says
their power of scent is small In storms
have had them fly up the wind, almost
into my face have often laid on the beach
and watched them drift within short range;
with a scullng boat, masked by rushes
they are very easy of approach.
Mr.. Burroughs says the black duck never
nests here. In this he is in error. / have
caught the young ducks in our creeks and
at Stratccrd. on the isllad-wet known to
local hunterg-one two broods are
Matched out every year.
The main flight comes from the north in
early October Some stay in the north all
winter, but the most go on south. 10 re-
turn in February. These travellers can be
easily identified by their bright reddish
pink legs and feet.
The black duck never dives unless wound
cd, and then he develops all the submarine
agility of the loon. l DO rot believe lie will
go down, held on to the bottom and drown
rather than be caught, although they often
disappear, hiding in nluskrat holes or stick
ing an unseen half inch of bill out of water
when compelled to come TO the surface
for air. / have dropped black duck In a
narrow shallow creek and watched him
swim under water with wings and feet
trying To find a hole in the bank
You are hunting "A bird whose ears and
eyes are far sharper than yours, who is
automatically alert and suspicious who
has no curiosity and takes no chances
anything unusual. and he is gone. lie pays
little attention to A low lying motionless
object, but will detect. when a mile away,
she muzzle OF gun stirring against the
sky line.