THE TEAL 



231 



A soldier acted as my retriever. He had removed his 

 shoes and was wading about leading his pony and 

 picking up the birds, when we discovered some horse- 

 men on a distant hill, evidently observing us. Think- 

 ing they were Indians, we stopped the shooting and 

 beat a hasty retreat for camp. I shall never forget the 

 appearance of the orderly with his ducks and his shoes 

 in his hands as we galloped across the plain. It was 

 a false alarm, however. The men were some of our 

 own troopers who had gone out to shoot at larger 

 game. It was too late, however, when we learned this 

 to return to the ducks, and early next morning we 

 moved our camp. 



The green-wing teal are far more abundant on the 

 Pacific Coast than the blue-wings. They come later 

 and remain longer. 



Mr. Thompson, writing of this sport in Oregon, says : 

 " If teal are abundant and ' come ' just right even an 

 old canvas-back shooter after a good morning's sport 

 at. these small and beautiful birds, is almost ready to 

 declare that there can be no finer sport. Of course, 

 each season will not bring them in the same numbers, 

 nor are they found everywhere. They seem to favor 

 one locality more than another. Usually, however, it 

 is possible with care and judicious feeding to draw 

 them to a given point; at times they are very abundant, 

 recalling the stories of years past in the waters of the 

 South. At one small lake, one of the best places along 

 the river for this kind of ducks, four hunters in one 

 day, shooting morning and evening, made a record of 

 more than four hundred of these birds. These were 

 all killed on the wing." 



