Wild Ducks 269 



ately their broad, flat bills have strainers on the 

 sides, and merely by shutting them tight, the 

 mud and water are forced out of the gutters. 

 After nightfall they seem especially active and 

 noisy. 



In every slough where mallards, blue- and 

 green-winged teal, widgeons, black duck and 

 pintails settle down to rest in autumn, gunners 

 wait concealed in the sedges. Decoying the 

 sociable birds by means of painted wooden 

 images of ducks floating on the water near the 

 bhnd, they commence the slaughter at day- 

 break. But ducks are of all targets the most 

 difficult, perhaps, for the tyro to hit. On the 

 slightest alarm they bound from the water on 

 whistling wings and are off at a speed that only 

 the most expert shot overtakes. No self- 

 respecting sportsman w^ould touch the little 

 wood duck — the most beautiful member of its 

 family group. It is as choicely coloured ancj 

 marked as the Chinese mandarin duck, and a 

 possible possession for every one who has a 

 country place with woods and water on it. 

 Unhke its relatives, the wood duck nests in 

 hollow trees and carries its babies to the water 

 in its mouth as a cat carries its kittens. 



The large group of sea and bay ducks, con- 

 tains the canvas-back, red-head and other 

 vegetarian ducks, dear to the sportsman and 

 epicure. These birds may, perhaps, be familiar 



