MALLARD SHOOTING IN ICJE HOLES. 115 



CHAPTER X. 



MALLAKD SHOOTING IN ICE HOLES. 



LATE in the fall or very early in the spring, excellent 

 shooting may be had at times in ice-holes. These holes 

 are found in swift-running water, or are what is gen- 

 erally known as air holes. When the weather has been 

 cold and prairie ponds are frozen, driving the ducks 

 from open land to timber, naturally at thi^ time they 

 seek water wherever it may be found. They fly 

 through the timber and over the trees in constant? 

 search for open water, places where experience had 

 heretofore taught them that water and feed could be 

 found in plenty. Their flight is slow, their search 

 thorough, and they are not unrewarded, for they find 

 an open spot where water may be had. When they 

 find a place like this they alight in great numbers. 

 The quantity lighting in the hole depending on the 

 number of them coming. This hole, like an omnibus, 

 always has room for one more ; and in they come, dart- 

 ing, sailing, fluttering, until the sheet of water resem- 

 bles a mass of moving life. After the hole is filled 

 they become generous, and wishing to make room for 

 fresh arrivals, that come like a deluge pouring down 

 from the sky in every direction, they crawl out and sit 

 on the ice, quacking vociferously, or with craws dis- 

 tended with corn, fruits of the last over-land trip, they 

 sit on the ice blinking, preening and sleeping the time 

 away. Their loud calls vibrate and course through the 



