Black Mallards 



black mallard is not an easy bird to outwit at 

 any time or place ; but here some magic mirror 

 or sounding-board seemed to supplement his nat- 

 ural eyes or ears. The slightest unnatural voice 

 or appearance, the snap of a twig or the quiver 

 of a leaf or the glimpse of a face in the larches, 

 would send a flock away on the instant ; and some- 

 times, when I was sure no sound or motion of 

 mine had broken the perfect quiet, they would 

 take wing in such incomprehensible fashion as to 

 leave me wondering what extra sense had warned 

 them of danger. 



Several times in the course of a summer, when 

 I wanted to observe the little duck family more 

 nearly, or to learn the meaning of some queer play 

 that I could not understand from a distance, I 

 would creep out of the larches unseen, worming 

 my way along a sunken deer-path, and stopping 

 whenever heads were turned in my direction. 

 One might think it an easy matter to approach 

 any game by such methods; yet almost in- 

 variably, before I could be safe behind a bush 

 or a tuft of grass at the water's edge, the old 

 mother-duck would become uneasy, like a deer 

 that catches a vague hint of you floating far down 

 the wind. That she could not see or hear me was 

 certain; that she could not smell me I had re- 

 peatedly proved ; nevertheless, after searching the 



[271] 



