PIN-TAIL DUCK. 221 



are limited. In the spring they come in countless 

 thousands, and are the first ducks to arrive. Still they 

 are not premature in their coming, for their barometer 

 is so infallible that when they have once put in an 

 appearance, experience warrants us in feeling that 

 spring has really come, and the cold weary days of 

 winter are over. 



When the snow melts and little rivulets are running 

 over the prairie forming broad open sheets of water, 

 observable from all points, then these wary birds come, 

 and alighting far out in the open, beyond the possibility 

 of harm, sit and chatter the long day through. When 

 the hunter, with the sky in the background, looms 

 up plainly to view, they see him; he may try to 

 get near them, but it is useless, for they fly long be- 

 fore he can get within gunshot of them. Their food 

 consists of seed, acorns, corn and waste materials that 

 the spring freshets float over the low lands. They are 

 high-flyers, indeed the greatest sky-scrapers of the duck 

 species. When they are frightened while feeding or 

 resting, they rise to a height of from 80 to 100 yards, 

 and then fly over the low lands and timber, just out of 

 gun range. I have seen them flying this way for hours. 

 How tantalizing they are ! The hunter may stand in 

 his blind, or lie concealed in some grassy spot ; flock 

 after flock will pass over him, just so high that he can- 

 not reach them. They are not silent company, for they 

 keep up an incessant chattering and whistling. It is 

 not possible to illustrate on paper just how this chatter- 

 ing is done, but a faint conception of it may be had by 

 saying as fast as one can, " Chuck-a-chuck-a-chuck," 

 repeating at least three times, the tongue must be glib, 

 and it must run under 160 pounds pressure, as the 



