CHAPTER “XOOV EIT: 
MIGRATORY SPRING FLIGHT. 
Distributed below and up to the frost line during 
the month of February are countless flocks of ducks, 
both divers and non-divers, each conforming to a 
general law, viz., as the shallowness is to the depth, 
so is the species of ducks which inhabit it; both are 
representatives of cold-weather birds, and all are 
awaiting open water for their intended northern mi- 
gration. 
An observer would call to mind a similarity (es- 
pecially if he had been present when the Indian Terri- 
tory was first opened for settldment) to thie late 
Oklahoma race, which occurred but once, whereas 
the former occurs every year; the later the opening 
of spring, the greater the rush, with this difference; 
the race for the new territory was to commence upon 
a certain day and at a given hour, the signal being 
the discharge of a cannon at 12 m., which found 
every contestant booted, saddled or hitched and ready 
to strive for the advantage of priority. 
Let the appointed day represent the sudden open- 
ing up of water holes, or open water obtained from 
melting snow or climatic changes producing a rain- 
fall, and the signal gun the arrival of one or more 
bodies of scouts, bands which had been sent out to 
reconnoiter and which upon returning had reported fa- 
vorably. Then the pintails in the van, with the yellow- 
leg or ice mallards in the rear, but usually in the 
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