A Paradise of Birds 



of which furnish a considerable part of their 

 food when snow covers the ground. 



The wild rice-marshes along the Fox River 

 and around Pucaway Lake were the summer 

 homes of millions of ducks, and in the Indian 

 summer, when the rice was ripe, they grew very 

 fat. The magnificent mallards in particular 

 afforded our Yankee neighbors royal feasts 

 almost without price, for often as many as a 

 half-dozen were killed at a shot, but we seldom 

 were allowed a single hour for hunting and so 

 got very few. The autumn duck season was a 

 glad time for the Indians also, for they feasted 

 and grew fat not only on the ducks but on the 

 wild rice, large quantities of which they gath- 

 ered as they glided through the midst of the 

 generous crop in canoes, bending down hand- 

 fuls over the sides, and beating out the grain 

 with small paddles. 



The warmth of the deep spring fountains of 



the creek in our meadow kept it open all the 



year, and a few pairs of wood ducks, the most 



beautiful, we thought, of all the ducks, win- 



[ 147 1 



