102 WATER FOWL, 



vor. Advantage is taken of this habit by gunners, who 

 make blinds in the fields where they can remain con- 

 cealed and shoot the birds as they come in to alight or 

 when flying overhead, and great numbers are killed in 

 this way. Mallards also decoy easily, either to wooden 

 counterfeits of themselves or to the bodies of their 

 kindred that have been shot and set out before the blind, 

 supported on sticks so as to give them a semblance of 

 life. Usually wary and suspicious, it is often surprising 

 to witness the entire confidence displayed by this Duck 

 when approaching the decoys, particularly if the quack- 

 ing notes in their various modulations are well imitated. 

 On catching sight of their supposed relatives, the birds 

 wheel, and come directly toward them, setting their 

 wings as they draw near, and uttering low, soft quacks 

 in a confidential tone, as if expressing satisfaction at 

 meeting so many of the brethren at one time. Then, 

 if any breeze is blowing, just before alighting they wheel 

 head to wind and settle upon the water, but if it is 

 calm they hover for a moment over the decoys and then 

 drop with a splash in their midst. 



When startled, the Mallard springs directly into the air 

 several feet upward, and then flies away very rapidly. No 

 preparation whatever is needed for it to make an exit 

 from any spot, and if it is on a pond or narrow creek 

 or in any concealed spot, one spring carries it above 

 all obstacles and leaves a clear line of escape. 

 Usually the sexes are not separated during the winter, 

 but keep together, yet in North Carolina I have on sev- 

 eral occasions discovered as many as fifty males assem- 

 bled on a pond, without a single female being present. I 

 have often wondered at this, and tried to account for such 

 a concourse of one sex at that season of the year, about 

 December, but never could arrive at any satisfactory ex- 



