526 The Water-fowl Family 



California. You can stay in the midst of the 

 grandest trout fishing, deer and grouse-hunting, 

 and yet have a fine duck shoot in August. Most 

 of the ducks breed still farther up the coast and 

 even in Alaska, but these move so early that you 

 will find many of them in Oregon mingled with 

 the birds that have bred there. 



THE WIDGEON 



No one who has ever heard that tender whistle 

 with which he generally heralds his coming, can 

 ever forget the widgeon, and he is always welcome 

 even among larger ducks. Amid the storm of 

 lead that greets the rovers of the sky on this 

 coast he holds his own about as well as the best, 

 and wherever there is much shooting worthy of 

 the name, the white-crowned beauty will be an 

 essential factor in it. Next to the sprigtail, he 

 is among the early ducks of fall, and stays as late 

 as any but the cinnamon teal. While the rest of 

 the ducks may stay on the water the whole day, 

 every widgeon in the pond may be out on the 

 bank sitting in the haze of gold and green the 

 burr clover spreads along the sunny shore. There 

 he may sit day after day among fine feed on 

 which everything else is fattening, but you will 

 not find him eating much of it, except at night. 

 But turn a head of water from a ditch on some 

 piece of ground, and he will be there before most 



