ICE HOLE SHOOTING. 44^ 



many ducks are found, he should drive them away with- 

 out shooting at them, in order that a little later they 

 may return in small companies and give him many 

 shots, whereas, if he fired at the main flock when he 

 first discovered them, they would be seriously fright- 

 ened, and would disappear not to return for a long time. 

 An account of shooting of this sort, written some 

 years ago, for Forest and Stream, by a correspondent 

 signing himself G. L. R., is given here : 



Late in the fall, or very early in the spring, very ex- 

 cellent shooting may be had at times in ice holes. These 

 holes are found in running water, or at what are gener- 

 ally known as air-holes. When the weather has been 

 cold, and all the prairie ponds are frozen, driving the 

 ducks from open land to timber, they naturally seek 

 for water wherever it may be found. They fly through 

 the timber and over the trees in constant search for 

 open water — places where experience had heretofore 

 taught them that water and feed could be found in 

 plenty. Their flight is slow, their search thorough, 

 and they are not unrewarded, for they find a spot where 

 water may be had. 



When they find a place like this, they alight in great 

 numbers. The quantity lighting in the hole depends 

 on the number of them coming. This hole, like an om- 

 nibus, always has room for one more. After the hole 

 is filled they become generous, and wishing to make 

 room for fresh arrivals, they crawl out and sit on the 

 ice, quacking vigorously, or, with craws distended with 



