128 DUCK SHOOTING. 



longer lending elastic vigor to the limbs, that now 

 cracked and broke when forced apart; the leaves 

 loosened their hold, for want of the same mysterious 

 tie, and fell in showers where the quail rustled over their 

 withering forms. Woodpeckers rattled with exultation 

 against the resounding bark and seemed to know of 

 the greater store for them now in the nerveless, drowsy- 

 trees that resisted the chisel less stoutly than when they 

 were full of juicy life. Ground squirrels worked hard, 

 gathering the last seeds and nuts to increase their win- 

 ter's store, and cold-blooded reptiles dragged their stif- 

 fening joints to bask in sunny spots and stimulate the 

 slow current of circulation before they should with- 

 draw and sink into torpor. Wildfowl came flocking 

 from their northern breeding places — among them 

 thousands of teal — hurtling overhead and plashing in 

 the waters they were to enliven and adorn all winter. 



"The upper parts of both forks of the Verde are 

 filled with beavers that have dammed the streams at 

 short intervals and transformed them in some places 

 into a succession of pools, where the teal swim in still 

 water. Other wildfowl join them, such as mallards, 

 pintails and green-wings, disporting together. The ap- 

 proach to the open waters is difficult in most places 

 from the rank growths, first of shrubbery and next of 

 reeds, that fringe the open banks ; in other places, where 

 the stream narrows in precipitous gorges, from the al- 

 most inaccessible rocks. But these difficulties over- 

 come, it is a pleasant sight to see the birds before us — 

 perhaps within a few paces if we have very carefully 



