122 WILD DUCK SHOOTING ON PRESERVES 



can be induced to remain, there is little fear of inbreed- 

 ing." 



The shooting should be done before the ice forms, at 

 which time or soon thereafter the ducks naturally are 

 inclined to go South. Since the young of some species 

 of ducks are fully grown and fly well by the last of Au- 

 gust, the season should be made a long one. 



I have shot many young ducks which were bred about 

 the prairie ponds in several States when I was shooting 

 prairie chickens in August and September, and those 

 who undertake to save the wild fowl and to increase their 

 numbers in the prairie States should save and multiply 

 the grouse at the same time and have a variety of shooting. 



The pond in Colorado (described in a former chapter) 

 where the owner entertains hundreds of ducks near his 

 house fairly represents one part of a good duck preserve, 

 for which the owner acts as gamekeeper. The reader 

 will remember that the ducks left this pond often to visit 

 a lake and that some of them were shot as they passed 

 overhead in going to the lake and when returning. Some, 

 no doubt, were shot on the lake. Had those who did the 

 shooting been permitted to disturb the fowl at will and to 

 arrange their blinds so as to get the best shooting as the 

 birds departed or returned, they would have had an ex- 

 cellent game preserve at very little trouble and expense. 

 There would be no danger of driving the ducks away, 

 provided the shooting be not done too often. 



If the general public had been permitted to surround 

 the little pond near the house and to bombard the ducks 

 at all hours of the day the ducks would have deserted 

 the place, and it would remain as desolate as the ponds 

 are in New England and in other settled regions. 



