Chia PIPER. ok, 
WINGED BIRDS—WHAT BECOMES OF THEM? 
This question is frequently asked, especially among 
duck shooters, owing to the great number of winged 
birds they lose during a season’s shooting. Can their 
wings heal, do they eventually die or fall a booty to 
roving animals or birds of prey? 
A winged or crippled duck always seeks some quiet 
weedy place to hide in, where it can find food without 
much trouble and search. Having found this seques- 
tered retreat, the cool water allays the heat, soreness, 
swelling and pain which the inflammatory action of 
the wound produces, and the bird enjoys the great care 
of surgery by putting the parts to rest. After the 
swelling subsides, a provisional callus is thrown out 
around the bone from the osseous material and 
lymph, which nourishes the bony structure; this hard- 
ens and forms the shape of a ring, which is afterward 
partly absorbed when the approximation of the ends 
of the fragments of bone is completed. This process 
is rapid, and in two or three weeks is completed, when 
after a series of trial flights, which strengthen the 
muscles of the wings, the bird is able to fly short dis- 
tances but will show for some time the effects of the 
fracture. 
Owls, hawks, minks, raccoons and skunks, with the 
meanest of all trailers, the weasel, prey upon the 
wounded ducks to a great extent, those in dry marshes, 
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