448 DUCK SHOOTING. 



bulent water caused by rapids, or where warm springs 

 breaking out under the bank, or from the bottom, keep 

 the water open through the winter, great numbers of 

 wildfowl remain from autumn until spring, although 

 the temperature often falls to twenty or thirty -degrees 

 below zero, or even to the point where mercury freezes. 



In many places in the Middle West, the mallards 

 seem loath to move southward, and do not go until all 

 the marshes and streams are frozen, so that feeding is 

 no longer possible for them. There are sloughs and 

 rivers where the current or the springs from the bot- 

 tom keep open what are called air-holes, long after the 

 frost has sealed up the waters in general, and to such 

 open places the late-staying ducks continue to resort in 

 considerable numbers after their more tender fellows 

 have taken their departure to warmer climes. So long 

 as such open water is accessible it will continue to give 

 food to the ducks, but gradually the area of the air- 

 holes becomes more and more contracted, until at last 

 the ice wholly covers them, and then the birds are 

 obliged to move onward. 



The gunner who is fortunate enough to find one of 

 these air-holes is quite sure to have good shooting for a 

 short time, and if there are several of them in the neigh- 

 borhood, so that the birds can pass from one to another, 

 he will have many opportunities at single birds and 

 small bunches, from which he should get a good bag 

 during the day. 



It is, of course, well understood by every experienced 

 gunner that if, on approaching a place such as this 



