DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 193 



to this effect : " They said that as you were a 

 pigeon-shooter, you would not be successful in the 

 field. I have, however, seen no such lot as that 

 at any time this season, and yet the ducks are 

 now scarce to what they have been." 



This farm of Mr. Michael Sullivant's is the 

 largest in Illinois, I think, and I am convinced 

 that it is one of the best neighborhoods in the 

 State for game. From what I saw, pinnated grouse 

 abound, there are lots of quail, and in the mi- 

 gratory seasons great flocks cf ducks, geese, brant, 

 and cranes. The estate was purchased by Mr. 

 Sullivant some years ago, when it was mostly un- 

 broken prairie. It is eight miles square, contains 

 about forty-four thousand acres, and twenty-six 

 thousand acres of it have already been brought 

 under cultivation. Twenty thousand acres of it 

 were in corn last year, and I dare say more will 

 be this year, while three thousand acres were in 

 smaller grain, and three thousand in meadow-grass. 

 Mr. Sullivant, the owner and farmer of this ex- 

 tensive and fertile tract, was formerly the largest 

 landowner in Franklin County, Ohio, and very 

 likely is so still. His father was one of the first 

 settlers near Columbus, the capital of Ohio; in 

 fact, he lived just west of the Scioto River, op- 



