150 OUT WITH THE BIRDS 



their green heads and eyeing me, wondering 

 doubtless what fool thing had got loose in the 

 woods. 



When I slipped around the next bend I found 

 a dozen old drakes idling close in to shore, where 

 the bank was higher. They were so close, in 

 fact, and so busily engaged in standing on their 

 heads, that I was almost beside them before they 

 were aware of my presence. It was good to see 

 them go quack-splashing out of there, and al- 

 most tying knots in themselves in their eager- 

 ness to put distance between themselves and the 

 foe. A man with a gun they knew, but this ! 



Yet when these films were developed, the 

 birds still had the best of me ; for the weak No- 

 vember light was insufficient for the high speeds 

 with which I had to make the exposures. It 

 was strong enough, however, to show that on the 

 last negative every member of the little flock 

 was a drake. This exclusiveness of these selfish 

 fellows is very noticeable in the North late in the 

 fall. Entire flocks of dandified drakes may 

 then be noted, but whether it is just a social 

 club, or a condition arising from the fact that 

 the females are packed off southward earlier is 

 rather hard to prove. 



