102 HUNTING TRIPS 



ponds and reedy -sloughs. In these were 

 quite a number of teal and wood-duck, 

 which were lying singly, in pairs, or small 

 bunches, on the edges of the reeds, or where 

 there were thick clusters of lily pads ; and we 

 had half an hour's good sport in " jump- 

 ing" these little ducks, moving cautiously 

 along the margin of the reeds, keeping as 

 much as possible concealed from view, and 

 shooting four teal and a wood-duck, as, 

 frightened at our near approach, they sprang 

 into the air and made off. Late in the 

 evening, while we were passing over a nar- 

 row neck of land that divided two small 

 lakes, with reedy shores, from each other, 

 a large flock of the usually shy pintail duck 

 passed over us at close range, and we killed 

 two from the wagon, making in all a bag 

 of twenty-one and a half couple of water- 

 fowl during the day, two thirds falling to 

 my brother's gun. Of course, this is a very 

 small bag indeed compared to those made 

 in the Chesapeake, or in Wisconsin and the 

 Mississippi valley; but the day was so per- 



