SHOOTING MALLARDS FROM A SCULL BOAT, oO 
they would fly without giving us a shot. One of the 
ducks got uneasy and swam with her head a little too 
high to please me. Only three? Most certainly there 
were four! We downed them all. Aha! cute, isn’t 
she? See how she sneaks off, body buried beneath the 
water and just her bill and top of head exposed. Tl 
give her a dose of those 8’s that will resurrect her. I 
thought so! Get these first, then we will pick her up 
as we pass down. 
Those tall trees off to the east are on the border of 
quite a lake, a great resort for blue-bills and red-heads. 
We will work over that way, for I know that on the 
high pin-oak ridges, where the water must be from 10 
inches to two feet deep, we will find large numbers of 
mallards—uniless other hunters have been there before 
us, and they haven’t, or we would have heard them 
shooting. Just beyond the trees and north of the lake 
there is high grass and smart-weed, and growing there 
in immense quantities is a red or brown berry that 
floats on the surface of the water, and is skimmed. off 
by the ducks, as they glide around through the tangled 
meshes, half swimming, half wading. Did I hear it? 
Most certainly I did; not only that one, but many 
others. It is their quacking off in the feeding ground 
I spoke of. Down among those large trees we can see 
them swimming now. No use trying to scull them. 
They know that in the shallow dead water where they 
are, nothing floats, nothing moves; besides, beneath 
the surface of the water are hidden stumps and logs 
that one’s boat would ground on, and we would be 
seen. Better let these go. See how they are moving 
in the air, coming from the South; all kinds, mallards, 
blue-bills, red-heads ; and there darting swiftly through 
