178 FIELD SHOOTING. 



Some mallards stay on the Sangamon all the 

 winter, unless the season happens to be particu- 

 larly severe and the cold very steady and in- 

 tense. When the fall ducks arrive, they are in 

 fine condition, having fed on the wild rice of 

 the nprth, and the young mallards are delicious 

 eating at that time. I know of nothing better, 

 and of hardly anything else as good. 



Duck-shooting is often rough, wet work. 

 About the rivers and sloughs it is necessary to 

 be more or less in the water, unless the shooter 

 has a boat; besides which, the ducks secured are 

 necessarily wet and draggled. Shooting ducks in 

 the corn-fields, as they come to feed, is differ- 

 ent. The shooter can usually manage to keep 

 tolerably dry, and the ducks shot -fall on the 

 ground instead of in the water. But even then 

 it requires considerable fortitude and much skill 

 and patience. People who want to sit by the 

 fire on cold, wet days, when the wind blows 

 strong and keen, are not cut out for duck- 

 shooters. When I go out for duck-shooting on 

 their feeding-grounds, I first ascertain by observa- 

 tion the fields they are flying to and from, and 

 the places they cross the bounds at. Ducks are 

 like sheep in some respects. Where one flock flies 



