£>AVS A MO JVC THE DUCKS, IO5 



by my head as I shifted the gun toward the 

 green wings. And Bbbbbbhbbbbbb came a score 

 of mallards along the reeds behind me as, be- 

 fuddled with the whirl and uproar, I shifted the 

 gun to the blue-wings. When I wheeled toward 

 these last mallards, after making a half-shift of 

 the gun toward the blue-wings, they saw me and, 

 belaboring the air with heavy strokes, swung 

 upward ; and as I turned the gun upon them, a 

 brigade of blue-bills with hissing wings rent the 

 air between us, while behind me I heard the air 

 throb again with the wings of a regiment of mal- 

 lards. The gun wabbled from the second mal- 

 lards to the blue-bills, and then around to the 

 last mallards, and finally illuminated the dark- 

 ness just over my head that the mallards had 

 filled when I raised it. 



