4 MORNING WITH NATURE, ETC. 249° 
ing so patiently, sitting so serenely, entirely oblivious 
of all sense of danger, he would swerve and turn toward 
the decoys, and the flock would follow their leader and 
come toward us. The quick report of the guns, the 
climbing ducks going straight up in the air on the ex- 
plosion of the powder, the centre shot, doubling the drake 
up limp and lifeless, the hasty ill-judged one, tipping the 
wing of the duck and necessitating a long chase, were all. 
seen and heard in a very short space of time. All kinds 
of shots were presented and acéepted, of course not always 
successfully, but we tried them all. A duck would come 
in, forgetful of everything, and with a grand swoop 
bow her wings right over the decoys thirty yards from 
us. A flash, a dull roar, a cloud of smoke, the woods 
filled with the re-echoing sounds, a drift of feathers 
floating in the air, and the duck throwing her head back 
on her falling body, would fall with a dull splash in the 
water. Then a drake off at our sides high over the 
water would come toward us, his green head looming 
up clearly against the light back-ground of steam 
colored sky. He looks down carelessly at our decoys, 
at his floating brothers and sisters ; we know he will 
not come back, and with implicit confidence throw our 
guns up. Quick as lightning, there flashes through our 
brains height, distance, velocity, both of shot and speed 
of birds,—the gun points at his body, then slowly and 
steadily advances ahead of him, one-two-three-four feet 
the brain conveys the thought tothe fingers, the fingers 
instantly respond, and at the report, the drake “shuts 
up” its plump body like a jack-knife and a dark object 
falls like a ball of lead to the earth. So small does he 
look as he comes from his fifty, perhaps sixty yards of 
height, that his body in its descent doesn’t look larger 
than a pigeon. 
