DAYS ON THE ILLINOIS. Ill 



of the water in some of the large shallow ponds of 

 the river-bottoms, and fringed around the edges 

 with reeds, often afforded rare sport. Often 

 flocks of mallards would skim the water until the 

 green necks shone within ten yards of the barrel, 

 and then as you rose to shoot there was a spark- 

 ling mixture of blue bars flashing on wings, glis- 

 tening breasts of chestnut, white-banded tails 

 with curls of burnished green, of red legs and 

 beaded eyes, whirling upward with wild quacking. 

 There, too, you could see the geese wind slowly 

 out of the blue until near the water, and then 

 with silent wing, and every musical throat sud- 

 denly hushed, drift softly along a few feet above 

 the surface until you could hear the soft hiss of 

 their sailing wings and see their black eyes 

 sparkle but a few yards from you. And as you 

 rose and looked along the gun, such pounding of 

 sheering wings, such confusion of white collars on 

 black necks, of gray wings and swarthy feet, 

 would crowd upon your eye as was worth waiting 

 long to see. 



Though ducks in the West do not generally 

 come to decoys in autumn as well as in spring, 

 there were many days when they would come 



