CHAPTER XOXI. 
LOCAL FLIGHTS—ROOSTING, FEEDING AND PLAY 
GROUNDS. 
The month of September is gladly welcomed by the 
sportsman. How eagerly he looks forward to the 
time when he can once more push his boat through 
lotus and lily pads, down the tall wild rice which 
fringes the shore of old hunting grounds, and drink 
in deeply the pure morning air. Now the ducks have 
settled down to some certain locality, and have selected 
three separate grounds for feeding, roosting and play- 
ing purposes. The non-divers’ grounds are always 
apart from the divers’ with slight exceptions, viz., 
when the latter drift in and feed in shallow water 
which contains some favorite food. 
At the first break of day, or even before, a flight 
commences from the roosting grounds to the feed- 
ing places, which continues until about eight o’clock; 
this is called, in hunting parlance, the morning flight. 
Upon the lakes, large sloughs and swamps they stay 
until about ten o’clock, or thereabouts, and then drift 
off to their playgrounds in small flocks, singles and 
pairs. If they are feeding upon the prairies in wheat, 
barley or corn fields, they invariably leave the feed- 
ing grounds whenever their crops are full of grain 
and proceed to the nearest pond hole or body of 
water, to soften the grain and pick up sand and gravel 
for their gizzards, frequently returning to the same 
fields for more in a short time but soon going off to 
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