510 DUCK SHOOTING. 



the train, and swung out over the prairie to a distance 

 of perhaps i,ooo yards from the train, and then, turn- 

 ing again toward the track, swung in and resumed their 

 old position. After a few moments, however, they 

 seemed again to become uneasy, and began to increase 

 their speed, still keeping parallel with the train, but 

 drawing slowly ahead, reminding the observer as he 

 looked at them somewhat of the way in which the faster 

 of two steamboats of nearly equal speed draws away 

 from the slower. This continued until the ducks 

 reached a point where the smoke of the engine was met 

 with, when they suddenly flared up into the air, greatly 

 increased their speed, and in a very few moments were 

 quite out of sight ahead of the train. 



The opportunity was one which might never occur 

 again, and the observation one of very considerable in- 

 terest. The pintail duck is not a very swift flyer if we 

 compare it with such birds as the butterball, broadbill, 

 redhead or canvas-back. At the same time, it is prob- 

 ably as swift a bird as the mallard or black duck, and 

 perhaps somewhat swifter. 



Gunners believe that the broadbill, blackhead, can- 

 vas-back and redhead are among the swiftest of all our 

 ducks, but it is quite certain that almost all of them fly 

 rapidly enough to at times puzzle any except the most 

 experienced gunners. 



ETIQUETTE OF THE BLIND. 



Since it often happens that two gunners may shoot 

 out of the same box or the same blind, it is evident that 



