I 



PECULIARITY OF DUCKS OUT WEST 105 



general readers may the better understand, 

 not only the wild geese, but the hunter's 

 methods of capturing them. 



The next morning after our field exploit, 

 I persuaded my country friend to go with me 

 to the lake (Eed Deer), a shoal, rush lake, a 

 mile and a half long, and half a mile wide, 

 located three quarters of a mile from his house. 

 What a sight met our eyes ! It was literally 

 full of ducks of many kinds the beautiful 

 mallard and plump little teal being very con- 

 spicuous, while my old Nova Scotian friend, 

 the blue- wing, held quite an important place. 

 There was a peculiarity about all the ducks out 

 West, that I never found in any other place 

 their apparent indifference to the report of 

 the gun. There, the more gunners on a 

 lake, the better the sport, as it does not drive 

 them away, but merely keeps them moving, 

 while ordinarily in other countries, after the 

 report, every duck leaves the neighbourhood 

 as fast as feathers can carry him. The border 

 of this lake at each end was covered with 

 rushes eight feet or more high, and as stout 

 as corn, and quite impenetrable, so that to 

 use them for shelter and to shoot from them 



