THE COMMON WILD DUCK 199 



for their wants were few, and they could get all they 

 wanted. They were philosophers in blue guernseys 

 and thigh water-boots, and they were, wont to say 

 that the sky was overhead and Providence above 

 that. 



And at last when the time did come to drain, 

 they could not believe it would ever be done, as it 

 was, in spite of all their prayers. When their 

 sacred duck decoys passed away with the rest, the 

 coymen reckoned the world would pass away too, 

 and they would wait a little while and go with it. 

 But when they found this did not take place so 

 soon as they thought it would, they turned to some- 

 thing else for a living ; ducks or no ducks, people 

 must live, and they do, through it all. 



The Mallard has free and enlightened views as to 

 the food-supply, and flights for it. There are those 

 that only have a superficial knowledge of the habits 

 of fowl, gained from a certain class of works, often 

 the mischievous, and we are sorry to say misleading, 

 output of men who are quite ignorant of what they 

 write about. I have seen some that wished to 

 pose as fowlers — save the mark ! — afraid to fire their 



own guns. 



I have heard folks told that heavy fogs are the 

 best things that can happen for duck -shooting, 

 because the fog gets in the Mallards' eyes, above 

 all birds that fiy, " so that they flop about just 

 like owls, and you can get them anywhere," and I 

 knew one to whom this was told who believed that 

 " the Bittern Hern (the Bittern) stuck his beak 



