524 The Water-fowl Family 



plenty of time, of which the mallard is quick to 

 avail himself. Yet there is little game that causes 

 more satisfaction than when at the report of the 

 first barrel a whirl of white and gray goes over 

 with another turning over before the first has 

 reached the water. Decoys seem more necessary 

 for this duck than for any other except the red- 

 head, so much so that in some places it is idle to 

 try to do much without them. This makes less 

 variety of shots than you can have from other 

 ducks like the teal. And if you find a large pond 

 well filled with them and scare them, the chances 

 are they will all leave for several hours, and give 

 you none of the wild whirling lines of return from 

 which you can pick such a variety of shots on other 

 ducks, and occasionally make that greatest of all 

 shots, the cross double, in which you take two 

 birds going in opposite directions, one with each 

 barrel. 



THE RED-HEAD 



Though duller of hue, the red-head is so much 

 like the canvas-back in action that the shooting 

 is about the same. I have found it much more 

 attractive on their breeding-grounds around the 

 upper end of Klamath Lake in southern Oregon, 

 just before they begin to move south. Thousands 

 of acres of reeds and grass surround the lake, 

 threaded at the upper end with sloughs, inlets, 

 and streams. Many of these are great spring 



