SOME HARMLESS HUNTING 143 



and if he knew where there was an unoccupied 

 bar just as good, he would flop off to it and 

 enjoy himself alone. 



There is something satisfying to the nature- 

 student in succeeding thus in getting right 

 among the wild things and catching them all 

 unconscious. In fact no one has really seen a 

 wild creature till he has caught him unafraid 

 and in his natural surroundings. It is only 

 thus that he learns the true character — if one 

 may call it such — of the creatures — of mallard, 

 the wary, always the first to shout, of pintail, 

 ever timid and afraid, of yellowlegs, the simple, 

 yet who on occasion scraps with his neighbor, 

 in a weak imitation of a hen-yard fray, of 

 bluebill, the rattle brained, who when scared in 

 the shallows, never seems to know whether to fly 

 or dive and usually tries them both alternately, 

 and of night heron, the swaggerer, who when he 

 stalks across the bar through the throng has a 

 ready lane opened up before him. 



To learn to stalk successfully, one must first 

 learn to crawl. By this I do not mean merely 

 to lower the body forward from the hips and go 

 on tiptoe, nor even to walk on fours, — hands 

 and knees — but to crawl as the snake crawls. 



