218 WILD-FOWL 



the tale. I was convinced by my experience of that 

 day that the entire absence of motion in the shooter 

 was more important than perfect concealment. After 

 I had observed the ducks for a long time (they were 

 very near) I made the slightest movement of one hand, 

 when with loud quacks they all sprang into the air 

 and in an instant were out of sight. 



Upon one occasion, when shooting with the Indian 

 agent at the Cut Head Sioux agency, we found the 

 mallards at evening flying from one small lake to an- 

 other, and just as the sun went down we began to 

 shoot. It was a cloudy evening, and the sun set red 

 behind large blue-black masses of cloud, so that it was 

 too dark to shoot shortly after the sun disappeared. 

 After a dozen or more shots a tight shell stopped 

 my shooting for a time, but we recovered in the dark 

 some thirty mallards, which, however, by no means 

 represented the number slain. The birds flew swiftly, 

 and at times I believe an expert ball player could have 

 done well with a bat. 



Mallards in the West often resort to the corn-fields, 

 and they may be shot on a pass as they travel into and 

 out of the fields, but the better way is to seek the pond 

 in the corn-fields, or puddle of water they are using 

 and shoot them over the decoys. 



I have shot mallards from horseback, riding along 

 the banks of a Western stream, and jumping them from 

 the water and the grouse from the shore. I have shot 

 them in the shallow Western lakes, by wading just out- 

 side the tall band of sedge which grew about the shore. 

 I have shot them from a boat and pass, but the most 

 mallards will be secured when shooting over decoys. 



