THE TEAL 229 



birds, and at the report a single teal, some distance 

 behind the others, fell dead upon the beach. I at 

 once began shooting long distances ahead of the pass- 

 ing ducks, and before long I had a large bag of birds. 



A few days afterward an officer from the garrison 

 nearby, a good shot in the upland fields and woods, 

 went with me to my duck-pass to shoot at teal. We 

 made our blinds some two gun-shots apart and soon 

 began to shoot. The birds came rapidly as before, and 

 my friend gave them two barrels as they passed, but 

 was entirely out of ammunition before he killed a bird. 

 His orderly came to my blind for shells, and with them 

 I sent a message to shoot three times as far ahead as 

 he had been doing, and he soon was killing birds. 



One morning, when shooting larger ducks, three 

 green-wing teal passed my blind, flying just above the 

 water, all in a row a yard or more apart. Aiming 

 well ahead of the leading bird I saw my shot strike 

 the water well behind the last, and of course they all 

 escaped. 



Teal spring from the ground or water with great 

 rapidity and it is easy to miss them as they rise. I 

 once saw a blue-wing on a small stream in Ohio, which 

 was being chased about on the water by a flock of 

 tame ducks, who scolded him and annoyed him until 

 he finally went ashore on a mud bar at the lower end 

 of a small island, overgrown with willows and much 

 underbrush. Letting my boat drift until I made a 

 landing at the upper end of the island, I quietly 

 stalked the teal until within easy range, and after 

 observing him for a time, stepped out from the cover 

 of the trees, when he sprang into the air and I missed 



