Gru P TER, | Xe. 
NORTHERN FALL FLIGHT. 
The month of August has arrived, the aspect of the 
landscape has changed, the apple trees are loaded 
with early fruit, peaches are turning red, and the 
luscious blackberry hangs temptingly on every bush. 
The nights are cooler, and Nature seems relieved from 
her heated, sweltering past. 
The first movement the ducks make, when they out- 
grow the flapper state and have tested their wings in 
short flights, will be to make excursions to bodies 
of water or slough holes, adjacent to their watery 
places of refuge, which as flappers they have occu- 
pied more or less since they were ducklings. These 
visits are made in the evening, about sundown, re- 
turning soon after daylight, gradually increasing in 
numbers; at first, each flock remains alone, but is soon 
joined by others, and the young ducks mix with their 
own species, and become little flights as the summer 
advances and their wings get stronger. Later, dur- 
ing the month of August, they extend these flights, in 
company with others, and travel northward, scarcely 
noticed except by the hunter, who keeps constantly 
observing new ducks in places where the had never 
observed any before. 
By gradually extending these smal! excursions they 
travel through the state, and frequently beyond it, so 
that pond holes, sloughs, rivers and streams which 
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