138 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



" See those ducks coming ?" said Jackson. 



" Where ? " 



" Close by the mainland, sir, low down." 



" Yes ! they are coming this way, too." 



" Teal," said Mike. 



" How do you know that, Mike ? have you seen that flock 

 before ? " asked the Doctor. 



"By their flyin' ; you couldn't throw a picayune edgeways 

 through the flock." 



The compact body of birds that seemed when first in view a 

 fleck on the red sky, gradually extended in size until they swept 

 high over our heads, with a sound like a strong wind in a pine 

 wood, keeping well toward the outer side of the island. 



" Jist think of them air critters bein' hatched among the ice- 

 bergs ! " 



" But think of their all going back again next spring to the 

 very spot they were born," replied Miss Jackson. 



"I trust they all won't get the chance," said the Doctor, looking 

 the way they went with covetous eyes. 



" Wall, that 's easy enough done with the chance they 've got 

 stuck up higher en a meetin' house, a-prospectin' over the country ; 

 they 'd be booby birds to forgit their own trail. The rub was to 

 'eve done it the fust time, when it was all strange like." 



" They are always piloted by some old bird that has been here 

 before, I think," said Miss Jackson. 



" How do you know that, Miss Wiseacre ? " 



" By seeing the flock come straight to some favourite feeding- 

 ground, where they will always alight at nearly the same time 

 every year. Now, had there been no old bird piloting them, they 

 would have alit in open water, and found the feeding ground sub- 

 sequently." 



" I shot in a flock ones't in the spring-time and winged a young 

 mallard duck," said Mike, pushing up his cap from his face, and 

 spreading his arms out on the muzzle of his rifle. " I tuck the 

 thing hum and penned it up with the tame ducks, and so I kept it 

 all summer. When fall cum the diver ducks kim fust, and then a 

 purty considerable show of teal, but he didn't scrape his foot to 



