SHOAL-WATER DUCKS. 20I 



condition. In color the Mallard resembles almost precisely the 

 barnyard drake, but the colors are purer, more marked, and the 

 orang-e of the feet more brilliant. Length about twenty-four 

 inches, weight two and one-half to three pounds. The female is 

 in color dull yellowish-brown streaked and spotted with dusky, 

 like the female of the domestic duck. Mallards breed in limited 

 numbers in the various swamps and sloughs of our Western coun- 

 try, but by far the greater portion continue their flights to the far 

 North. They appear again in the latter part of August, their 

 numbers multiplied enormously by the new broods, but the best 

 of the shooting does not commence until the middle of September, 

 and continues until the freezing of the waters drives the ducks still 

 further south to genial climes. Their habits vary in the different 

 localities they frequent, and a variety of methods are employed in 

 Mallard-shooting. Common places of resort are the extensive wild 

 rice marshes which abound in Wisconsin and Illinois. The seed 

 of this plant is the favorite food of the Mallard, and they, with 

 thousands of our other fresh water fowl, repair to these localities. 

 As colder weather approaches and ponds begin to skim over with 

 ice, the Mallards betake themselves to the rivers where they con- 

 gregate in vast flocks. At this time they frequently make journeys 

 morning and evening to neighboring corn-fields and the like, for 

 food. They feed principally by day ; in field shooting the usual 

 call note should never be imitated as it will merely serve to frighten 

 the birds ; if the hunter is skillful, and can at these times imitate 

 their low chattering notes he may call some ducks to his stand. 

 Large bags are gometimes made at ice holes where the ducks come 

 to roost and drink, also at the mouths of spring-creeks, the bottoms 

 being covered with gravel, which the ducks seek to aid digestion. 

 In the spring time when the heavy timbered " bottom lands " are 

 inundated by the rising of the rivers. Mallard may be found sitting 

 in large bodies both night and day in the depths of the woods, par- 

 ticularly among the maple and willow timber, where they feed on 

 the insects, buds and vegetable matter floating on the surface of 

 the water. On being routed, instead of settling in some other 

 place of greater security, they will shortly return singly or in small 

 parties, affording most excellent sport. If the sportsman can but 

 find some cover — an old log, stump, or clump of bushes in the 



