n.\Ri<i:L-i{Oi?sr: Bf.iND 



many years experience but when he came to 

 camp in the evening his strinq would show only 

 a few birds and when asked what was the rea- 

 son he said he didn't know unless it was that 

 the feathers carried away the birds. This hap- 

 pened to m.e many times and "Understand, old- 

 timers. I am not telling you that every shot i 

 fired biought down a bird." Not by any means. 

 for many were the foxy old birds that 1 shot at 

 and missed or as the old-time hunters termed it, 

 another case where the feathers carried away 

 the meat. As times passes and years unfold, it is 

 a matter of intense interest to the water-fowl 

 hunters hov/ certain varieties of duck grow 

 scarce and others come into prominence, which 

 in early years was unknown to the hunting fra- 

 ternity. This is remarkably true of several 

 species and particularly applies to nearly every 

 variety of large kucks known in the Kankakee 

 River Region. As I have said, many varieties 

 of ducks, plentiful fifty years ago, are now almost 

 exterminated and where we ran our boats over 



164 



