ing. The hunter versed in the lore of the woods is not so 

 ready to give credence. Sometimes the sign is opportune. 

 More often it is false. Usually, these short flights mean that 

 the ducks are merely strengthening their wings to be in readi- 

 ness when winter does arrive. 



The great flocks of ducks that annually fly to the South, do 

 not come from one certain point. Each flock results from 

 the gathering or collecting of smaller flocks. The birds meet 

 on a common feeding ground where for days they move about 

 awaiting the others which instinct tells them will come. 

 When the flock has assumed sufficient proportion, a few of 

 the stronger birds rise from the water, the scream of the 

 wild duck resounds through the forest or over the waters of 

 the lake an-d with one accord, the entire lot rises on wing, 

 completes a circle and in V-formation turns towards the Gulf 

 and the migration is under way. Each large flocks thus 

 gathers and moves. En route, recruits are picked up along 

 the way. 



Flying Targets Till They Reach Bayous of the Lower 

 Mississippi. 



From the time the birds leave the Canadian border, they 

 become moving targets till they reach the bayous in the lower 

 Mississippi. What percentage is killed, cannot be estimated, 

 but the slaughter is appalling. Unquestionably, the canvas- 

 backs are becoming fewer. They fly in smaller number and 

 their migration becomes later each year that passes. The 

 canvasback does not increase at its breeding ground so rap- 

 idly as the mallard or the teal. The number of eggs laid by 

 the mother duck is smaller and fewer of them hatch. 



The mallards also are moving in smaller number than in 

 years gone by, but the proportion of their decline is smaller 

 than that, of the canvasback. Their meat is the best to eat 

 of all the wild ducks. The teal apparently are as plentiful 

 as they were ten years ago. 



"The wild ducks are moving further north to find summer 

 feeding grounds," an old hunter said. "The moose have prac- 

 tically cleaned out the wild rice from Minnesota lakes, on 



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