Waterfowl. 53 



cotton-wood saplings ; so the chance to creep up was very 

 good. On getting round the bend I poked my head 

 through the bushes, and saw that the little bunch I was 

 after had joined a great flock of teal, which was on a sand 

 bar in the middle of the stream. They were all huddled 

 together, some standing on the bar, and others in the 

 water right by it, and I aimed for the thickest part of the 

 flock. At the report they sprang into the air, and I 

 leaped to my feet to give them the second barrel, when, 

 from under the bank right beneath me, two shoveller or 

 spoon-bill ducks rose, with great quacking, and, as they 

 were right in line, I took them instead, knocking both 

 over. When I had fished out the two shovellers, I waded 

 over to the sand bar and picked up eleven teal, making 

 thirteen ducks with the two barrels. 



On one occasion my brother and myself made a short 

 wagon trip in the level, fertile, farming country, whose 

 western edge lies many miles to the east of the Bad Lands 

 around my ranch. There the land was already partially 

 settled by farmers, and we had one or two days' quite fair 

 duck-shooting. It was a rolling country of mixed prairie 

 land and rounded hills, with small groves of trees and 

 numerous little lakes in the hollows. The surface of the 

 natural prairie was broken in places by great wheat fields, 

 and when we were there the grain was gathered in sheaves 

 and stacks among the stubble. At night-time we either 

 put up at the house of some settler, or, if there were none 

 round, camped out. 



One night we had gone into camp among the dense 

 timber fringing a small river, which wound through the 



