Waterfowl. 57 



a turn out on the prairie before coming back to the 

 wagon. In a small pool, down in a hollow, were a couple 

 of little dipper ducks or buffle-heads ; they rose slowly 

 against the wind, and offered such fair marks that it was 

 out of the question to miss them. 



The evening before we had lain among the reeds near 

 a marshy lake and had killed quite a number of ducks, 

 mostly widgeon and teal ; and this morning we intended 

 to try shooting among the cornfields. By sunrise we 

 were a good distance off, on a high ridge, across which we 

 had noticed that the ducks flew in crossing from one set 

 of lakes to another. The flight had already begun, and 

 our arrival scared off the birds for the time being ; but in 

 a little while, after we had hidden among the sheaves, 

 stacking the straw up around us, the ducks began to come 

 back, either flying over in their passage from the water, or 

 else intending to light and feed. They were for the most 

 part mallards, which are the commonest of the Western 

 ducks, and the only species customarily killed in this 

 kind of shooting. They are especially fond of the corn, 

 of which there was a small patch in the grain field. To 

 this flocks came again and again, and fast though they 

 flew we got many before they left the place, scared by the 

 shooting. Those that were merely passing from one 

 point to another flew low, and among them we shot a 

 couple of gadwall, and also knocked over a red-head from 

 a little bunch that went by, their squat, chunky forms 

 giving them a very different look from the longer, lighter- 

 built mallard. The mallards that came to feed flew high 

 in the air, wheeling round in gradually lowering circles 



