DAYS AMONG THE DUCK'S. 1 03 



now with rushing, tearing sound, as if rending 

 with speed the canopy of heaven, down they came 

 out of the face of night. Dense masses of blue- 

 bills, with wings set in rigid curves, came winding 

 swiftly down, with long lines of mallards whose 

 stiffened wings made the air hiss beneath them. 

 On long inclines and sweeping curves sprigtails 

 and other large ducks rode down the darkening 

 air, while, swift and straight as flights of falling 

 arrows, blue-winged teal fell from the sky, and 

 green-wings shot by in volleys or pounced upon 

 the scene with the rush of a hungry hawk. Geese 

 in untold numbers went trooping past, but most 

 of them kept high in the sky until over some of 

 the larger lakes, then lengthening their dark 

 lines, descended slowly in long spiral curves. 

 White-fronted geese, too, dotted the western and 

 northern skies, marched with faster wing and 

 more clamorous throats until over the edge of 

 the larger ponds, then, in solemn silence slowly 

 sailing for a few hundred feet, suddenly resumed 

 their cackle and, whirling, pitching, tumbling, and 

 gyrating, every bird with a different twist, down 

 they went to the water as fast as gravity could 

 take them. 



