248 



THE OOLOGIST 



the river. These islands swarm 

 with meadow mice and these form the 

 hawks principal food. 



I had noticed several about and as 

 there is no hemlock or cover on the 

 island it is impossible to stalk them 

 as they are wary. 



A few days before while down that 

 way I had shot a couple of nice black 

 mallards so I took their skins along 

 with a couple of small steel traps. 



I crossed on the ice to the head of 

 the largest island and made two sets 

 for hawks with the two skins. 



Then I started down along the open 

 water. There was a heavy fog rais- 

 ing from the water, caused by the zero 

 weather, and I couldn't see a duck 

 very well at any distance. The fog 

 didn't help to make it any warmer 

 either. I first came upon a bunch of 

 seven American Mergansers and as 

 they disappeared into the fog 1 

 brought down a female at long range. 



The ice at these open places freezes 

 thick right out to the water's edge 

 and a person can walk right out to 

 the edge and pick a dead duck out by 

 hand as it floats in. I flushed several 

 more flocks along this island but 

 couldn't see them in time because of 

 the fog. 



I went over a long eddy on the ice 

 to the flats and islands known as 

 "Grass Flats", — my usual rendezvous. 

 By this time the fog lifted, and 

 crawling through the deep snow to a 

 drift I cleaned up three Black Mal- 

 lards that were feeding in a small 

 spring hole. 



A Northern Shrike flew past and 

 from its bill dangled a small bird of 

 some kind. 



In the main opening near the upper 

 end I saw about 40 Mergansers. I 

 crawled up behind a big tree. Two 

 handsome drakes with beautiful sal- 

 mon-colored underparts, fed down 



within range and I got both. At the 

 otter den at the end of the bayou I 

 found an abundance of otter trails and 

 along the edge of the ice found num- 

 erous fish heads. I concluded to take 

 down a couple of big traps on my next 

 trip. In the lower end of the opening 

 around a bend, I saw two drake 

 mallards, also a bunch each of whistl- 

 ers and Mergansers. I crawled up 

 and bagged both mallards, fine old 

 green heads in full plumage. Walk- 

 ing out to get them I broke through a 

 little air hole or spearing hole and 

 plunked down into about two and a 

 half feet of icy water. I got my ducks 

 though, but in the zero temperature 

 my clothes froze stiff in a minute. I 

 got a move on and hustled as fast as 

 I could back into a dense hemlock 

 swamp that is close to the river at 

 this point. Under the wide spreading 

 roots of a partly uprooted and fallen 

 hemlock I found a bare place, and 

 with dry dead hemlock and pine limbs 

 I soon had a rousing fire going. I had 

 to spend a couple hours there before 

 I got dried enough to start out again. 

 When I entered the swamp I started 

 an old horned owl and while thawing 

 out I saw a few chickadees and king- 

 lets and occasional flock of Grosbeaks, 

 but bird life was rather scarce. 



After getting well dried I returned 

 to the river. About 40 Mergansers 

 and a bunch of golden-eyes were feed- 

 ing. Another long crawl through the 

 snow and up behind some drift and 

 I was in easy range of the entire 

 flock of Mergansers and could easily 

 have potted half a dozen. The Golden 

 eyes looked good to me so I waited un- 

 til I was nearly frozen, then I got my 

 chance and smashed them twice, get- 

 ting three handsome drakes. A fourth 

 weakened after rising and soon fell 

 on the ice and I took him in also. A 

 wind had sprang up and a fine snow 



