280 THE WILD FOWL. 



the prairies. The first one I ever saw or shot was on 

 Cedar Bayon, a sluggish stream emptying into Gralveston 

 Bay, and, fancying I had found quite a new bird, I 

 was delighted with it. A settler, to whom I showed it, 

 soon assured me that it was a very common bird indeed. 



The Pintail is a very common bird in Texas and the 

 South during the winter. 



The Shoveller is abundant in the extreme South, 

 though rare in the Northern States. 



The Black, or Dusky Duck, breeds in the South, and 

 is there throughout the year. 



I may as well give some general remarks upon the 

 shooting on the coast from my own experience. The 

 inland brackish bays are covered with wild swans and 

 geese, and numberless varieties of ducks, which flock 

 to them at dusk, whilst further in the interior of the 

 country, the flocks of ducks, and mallards, and blue 

 and green-winged teal, seek the fresh-water lakes. 



All night long the quacking of the ducks, the mur- 

 muring of the teal, and the whistling of the widgeon, 

 can be heard, as the flight-shooter sits concealed in the 

 tall sedge, or reeds. Now and then, though not often — 

 for I could always kill as many as I needed in broad 

 daylight — I have been induced to join two or three 

 friends in a night's flight-shooting, though it is a very 

 wasteful method, as scarcelv one in three of the killed 

 or badly wounded birds are ever bagged. 



I was living on the borders of the Great Bay Prairie the 



