50 “COME DUCK SHOOTING WITH ME” 
but it never would go far, much less fly again. We could 
have picked him up going home, if it hadn’t been for 
vieagey.! 
A duck’s skeleton is very light, just strong enough to 
carry the rest of the body in the air. The skull is 
round and compact but the covering of bone is fragile. 
Suddenly ‘‘Casey’’ brought his bill down with all his 
force, on top of the duck’s head. ‘‘Casey’’ was ‘‘at the 
hats 
The duck’s wings opened and convulsively trembled. 
The gray wings of the gull waved and flickered in the air 
as he pecked out and ate the duck’s breasts. Inafew 
minutes ‘‘Casey’’ flew slowly away to stand and quietly 
ruminate on his mudbank. With ‘‘Casey”’ out of sight 
the gray gulls and a friend or two attacked the carcass. 
There was a great scolding and fluttering of wings. In 
a few minutes these gulis also flew away and all was 
quiet again on the mudbank. When we rowed by that 
evening, going home, nothing remained but a head, two 
wings, and a bunch of feathers. 
My marsh is probably visited by more shore birds 
than any other in the country. It’s against the law at 
present to shoot shore birds. The bulk of them go 
south before the duck season opens and ducks and geese 
are too plentiful in the fall to bother with shore birds. 
That’s why they are so tame and friendly. A flock of 
the larger shore birds flew over the decoys; there were 
two sickle-bill curlew, five large godwits, and about 
twenty avocets. The avocets were in the lead with the 
long-billed curlew and godwits bringing up the rear. 
Curlew are scarce to-day to what they were a dozen 
years ago. They were plenty enough then to flock by 
themselves and their rolling harsh note could be heard 
every day. Godwits are still fairly plentiful but their 
