ioo HUNTING TRIPS 



look from the longer, lighter-built mallard. 

 The mallards that came to feed flew high in 

 the air, wheeling round in gradually lower- 

 ing circles when they had reached the spot 

 where they intended to light. In shooting 

 in the grain fields there is usually plenty of 

 time to aim, a snap shot being from the na- 

 ture of the sport exceptional. Care must be 

 taken to He quiet until the ducks are near 

 enough; shots are most often lost through 

 shooting too soon. Heavy guns with heavy 

 loads are necessary, for the ducks are gener- 

 ally killed at long range ; and both from this 

 circumstance as well as from the rapidity of 

 their flight, it is imperative to hold well ahead 

 of the bird fired at. It has one advantage 

 over shooting in a marsh, and that is that a 

 wounded bird which drops is of course 

 hardly ever lost. Corn- fed mallards are most 

 delicious eating; they rank on a par with 

 teal and red-head, and second only to the 

 canvas-back a bird, by the way, of which 

 I have never killed but one or two individuals 

 in the West. 



