82 “COME DUCK SHOOTING WITH ME” 
nine of them. On curved motionless wings they circled 
steadily lower until heading directly into the wind they 
came within range. We both fired together and prob- 
ably at the nearest bird. We pasted him in great 
shape. Then each got one with the second shell. 
They were still within easy range and I longed for the 
automatic as it was possible to get in another shot. 
But of course it was too late, they were out of range 
almost instantly. 
‘Three blue-bills down,” said Jimmy. ‘‘Blue-bills 
are prettier shooting than they are eating.”’ 
““How so?”’ lasked. ‘‘Aren’t they as good eating as 
mallards?”’ 
‘‘No indeed,’ Jimmy answered, ‘‘mallards are fine 
eating ducks. Blue-bills are smaller than mallards— 
they are not much larger than spoonbills—and they 
always seemed to me pretty dry.” 
‘‘All ducks are dry the way they are generally cooked 
out here,” Isaid. ‘‘Now I suppose you will tell every- 
body I said that, and I’ll become anything but a general 
favorite.” 
“How would you cook these old ducks then? Our 
way is allright. We parboil them to make them tender 
and then brown them nicely in the oven. Can you beat 
that way of cooking?’”’ 
“Well, I will frankly say it’s possible I might.” 
‘““How would you go about it?’’ Jimmy asked. 
‘It’s very simple: the first thing to do is to hang the 
ducks by their necks for a week or ten days in a cool 
place. ”’ 
““Why do you do that?”’ asked Jimmy. 
“You boil them to make them tender. In that way 
the flesh of the duck is tender in twenty minutes, but 
all the wild flavor of the duck is boiled away in the water. 
