234 WILD-FOWL 



and it goes through the trees with the speed and safety 

 of the wood-grouse. 



The summer ducks are found from Hudson's Bay to 

 the Gulf, and are abundant in the Mississippi valley ; 

 but they are vanishing more rapidly than any of the 

 other ducks in all parts of their range. I have referred 

 to the bulletin of the Agricultural Department which 

 predicts their extermination. 



They were some years ago extremely abundant in 

 September on the Sandusky marshes in Ohio, and 

 about the Kankakee in Indiana, and the Illinois River 

 in Illinois. I have often shot them over decoys and 

 jumped them in the wild-rice. The game register at 

 the Winous Point Club, near Sandusky, shows that 

 hundreds of wood-ducks were killed formerly each 

 season on that preserve, but the average for the past 

 ten years has hardly been more than fifty birds per 

 annum. I was informed that within the past year or 

 two the wood-ducks were somewhat more abundant 

 than they were five years ago, but the register does 

 not show much of an increase. 



At English Lake I shot them from a light boat, 

 jumping them in the wild rice. The punter pushed 

 the boat (which contained a revolving office-chair for 

 the gunner) rapidly. The birds often arose at short 

 range and presented easy marks. They w^ere very 

 abundant on the Kankakee at certain bends in the 

 river, where they fed on acorns which dropped from 

 the oaks into the water. A friend one day killed over 

 seventy of these birds over decoys, and I often made 

 fairly good scores shooting from a blind, but my fond- 

 ness for moving about and exploring the marshes and 



