MALLARD SHOOTING LN iCH HOLES, 115 
CHAPTER X. 
MALLARD SHOOTING IN ICE HOLES. 
LATE in the fall or very early in the spring, excellent 
shooting may be had at times in ice-holes. These holes 
are found in swift-running water, or are what is gen- 
erally known as air holes. When the weather has been 
cold and prairie ponds are frozen, driving the ducks 
from open land to timber, naturally at this time they 
seek water wherever it may be found, They fly 
through the timber and over the trees in constant 
search for open water,—places where experience had 
heretofore taught them that water and feed could be 
found in plenty. Their flight is slow, their search 
thorough, and they are not unrewarded, for they find 
an open spot where water may be had. When they 
find a place like this they alight in great numbers. 
The quantity lighting in the hole depending on the 
number of them coming. This hole, like an omnibus, 
always has room for one more; and in they come, dart- 
ing, sailing, fluttering, until the sheet of water resem- 
bles a mass of moving life. After the hole is filled 
they become generous, and wishing to make room for 
fresh arrivals, that come like a deluge pouring down 
from the sky in every direction, they crawl out and _ sit 
on the ice, quacking vociferously, or with craws dis- 
tended with corn, fruits of the last over-land trip, they 
sit on the ice blinking, preening and sleeping the time 
away. ‘Theirloud calls vibrate and course through the 
