CRANES AND MALLARDS. 277 



hill, stay all the winter in the Southern States. The 

 latter can be easily killed by a man on horseback, who 

 approaches them in the same manner as in getting to 

 geese, but the whooping-cranes, from their superior 

 height and greater timidity, are rarely killed. I did 

 not kill more than fifteen during the fifteen years I 

 hunted in Texas — thus averaging about one a year — 

 though scarcely a winter passed during which I did not 

 kill at least a hundred of the grey vai'iety. 



The Mallard (Anas Boschas), or Common Wild Duck, 

 breeds in almost all the States of North America, but 

 sparingly — the greater portion going farther north, for 

 the purposes of incubation. During the winter, in the 

 Southern States, the boys who are just old and strong 

 enough to carry a gun kill thousands of them, and, 

 in some form or other — roasted, baked, or broiled — 

 these birds appear on almost every table as regularly 

 as the venison steaks and the inevitable pork and 

 hominy. 



In Louisiana, the amphibious inhabitants at the 

 mouths of the Mississippi- -who, fishermen and oyster- 

 men in the summer, are wild-fowlers in the winter — kill 

 large numbers, which meet with a ready sale in New 

 Orleans. In Texas all the large towns, such as Galves- 

 ton, Houston, Indianola, Corpus Christi — where regular 

 . markets are established — are bountifully supplied with 

 them. They are readily disposed of to the merchants, 

 the landlords of hotels, &c. ; and men fond of the gun. 



