CORNFIELD SHOOTWG. 375 



In that country the season then opened on the fif- 

 teenth of August, and for two weeks there was good 

 shooting at young ducks ; then on a sudden all would 

 disappear, and not a duck would be found until the 

 advent of cold weather. The birds moved away North, 

 as it was thought, only returning when forced South 

 by the frost. 



In shooting in the cornfields regular blinds of corn 

 stalks were not built, but near the edges of ponds it was 

 quite common to stick in the soft ground two or three 

 rows of stalks, and to hide behind such a blind and 

 shoot the birds that came in. 



After the weather grew colder there used to be good 

 shooting on the fly-ways along the sloughs, for if the 

 wind was blowing hard against them the ducks flew 

 low. They almost always followed the water, and 

 could usually be shot from the shore. A friend tells 

 me of shooting one evening, in an hour, over fifty teal. 

 This was at what was known as the Big Slough ; it is 

 about nineteen miles long and one mile wide, and can 

 only be crossed where it is bridged. The gunners stood 

 on the points running out into the slough, and had their 

 shooting from there. On the evening in question my 

 friend reached the slough a little late and found all the 

 points taken. It was perfectly still, and there was no 

 wind to drive the ducks toward the points. At one 

 place there was a long sand bar, which ran out into the 

 slough; my friend waded out on this to a bunch of 

 rushes which grew from the water nearly in mid- 

 stream, and stood there in water about breast deep. 



