184 FIELD SHOOTING. 



nois River is very good indeed, and there are more 

 canvas-backs and red-heads there than there are 

 about the Sangamon or in the neighborhood of 

 Elkhart; but my favorite among ducks, whether 

 for sport or the table, is the plump, heavy, beauti- 

 ful mallard. 



As ' I remarked before in alluding to the color 

 of the duck-shooter's clothes, ducks know a good 

 deal more than some of the men who go after 

 them. You may see some of the latter select 

 for their shooting-place a corn-field in which the 

 stalks are all broken down, and there they go 

 to work and build a standing blind of the stalks. 

 " In vain is the net of the fowler spread in 

 sight of the bird." The ducks have probably 

 flown over that field dozens of times, and notic- 

 ing this blind a thing there new and strange 

 they sheer off* from it instead of flying on to 

 go over it or near it, and the man inside of it 

 gets no shots within killing distance. When I 

 see that a man has built a blind in such a 

 place, I just take advantage of his ignorance and 

 folly by going and lying down some hundred 

 and fifty or two hundred yards on one side of 

 it. All the ducks that sheer off from it on that 

 side I get a shot at. In this way I have often 



