A MORNING WITH NATURE, ETC. 249 



ing so patiently, sitting so serenely, entirely oblivious 

 of all sense of danger, he would swerve and turn toward 

 the decoys, and the flock would follow their leader and 

 come toward us. The quick report of the guns, the 

 climbing ducks going straight up in the air on the ex- 

 plosion of the powder, the centre shot, doubling the drake 

 up limp and lifeless, the hasty ill-judged one, tipping the 

 wing of the duck and necessitating a long chase, were all 

 seen and heard in a very short space of time. All kinds 

 of shots were presented and accepted, of course not always 

 successfully, but we tried them all. A duck would come 

 in, forgetful of everything, and with a grand swoop 

 bow her wings right over the decoys thirty yards from 

 us. A flash, a dull roar, a cloud of smoke, the woods 

 filled with the re-echoing sounds, a drift of feathers 

 floating in the air, and the duck throwing her head back 

 on her falling body, would fall with a dull splash in the 

 water. Then a drake off at our sides high over the 

 water would come toward us, his green head looming 

 up clearly against the light back-ground of steam 

 colored sky. He looks down carelessly at our decoys, 

 at his floating brothers and sisters ; we know he will 

 not come back, and with implicit confidence throw our 

 guns up. Quick as lightning, there flashes through our 

 brains height, distance, velocity, both of shot and speed 

 of birds, the gun points at his body, then slowly and 

 steadily advances ahead of him, one-two-three-four feet 

 the brain conveys the thought to the fingers, the fingers 

 instantly respond, and at the report, the drake " shuts 

 up " its plump body like a jack-knife and a dark object 

 falls like a ball of lead to the earth. So small does he 

 look as he comes from his fifty, perhaps sixty yards of 

 height, that his body in its descent doesn't look larger 

 than a pigeon. 



