518 The Water-fowl Family 



rice or the corn of the great corn-fields, and the 

 rich feed of summer seeds here comes too late. 

 Some ducks are still good in spite of lack of fat, 

 such as the teal and mallard, but others that are 

 fine when on good feed become dubious fare 

 when the banquet fails and they have to descend 

 to common food. Such is the spoonbill on the 

 greater part of this coast. A good enough duck 

 elsewhere, and good enough here when he carries 

 fat enough to cook himself, he is yet such a poor 

 skirmisher for corporeal beatitude that he is gen- 

 erally in disfavor. In the midst of ripening alfi- 

 leria, burr clover, and all the luxuriance of a 

 California spring, with the light rippling in sil- 

 very waves over the ripening wild oats and grain, 

 heading out all around him, he can keep poorer 

 with no apparent effort than anything else that 

 lives. Too lazy to hunt good feed in many places, 

 he lives on muddling in dirty ponds that little 

 improve his flavor. Hence he is in disfavor when 

 in his natural state, and it is considered a fine 

 joke when some one in haste shoots a spoonbill 

 by mistake for a mallard. On the feed of club 

 grounds he can fatten into a good duck, and such 

 will probably be his future. While stupid com- 

 pared with the mallard and some of the larger 

 ducks, he is still smart enough to be interesting. 

 He has even less of a regular flight than the 

 other ducks, and is little on the wing unless 



