Wild Fowl and Men 269 



the attempts to drop into good feeding areas been repelled 

 by hidden gunners? 



The birds swam gracefully about, now and then up-ending 

 for food and occasionally uttering their soft calls. Not more 

 than a city block away a tug passed through the canal on 

 the way to the airfield. In the opposite direction I could 

 hear the football coach as he megaphoned his commands to 

 the squad on the practice field. From the tone of his voice I 

 judged that he thought some improvement could be reasona- 

 bly demanded. The sun grew warm enough so that I could 

 take off my coat as I watched the birds. No need to confuse 

 them with any other ducks: their long and graceful necks 

 striped with white on the sides, their sharp pointed tails, 

 and their trim appearance instantly separated them from any 

 other wild fowl which visited the marsh. When they reached 

 under water for food, their tails projected like a cardboard 

 triangle. Nearby were coots and a pair of pied-billed grebes 

 and close to the cattails stood a great blue heron— unafraid 

 wildlife in the midst of a city. 



As I watched the pintails I thought: they had better take 

 a good rest for they will need it after they leave here. They 

 will find very few places like this. A small powerboat cut 

 closer than the pintails liked. They rose in a little flock and 

 moved to shallower water where they resumed feeding. 

 Would this temporary freedom from interference make them 

 less likely to inspect the safety of their next resting place? I 

 feared that it might. Yet they had much need for wariness, 

 for they would face the peak of the hunting season. What 

 were the problems of waterfowl which were heavily hunted? 

 I remembered a remark I had once heard: if you want to 

 understand the working of the whole, it is sometimes better 

 to consider the working of its parts. I changed my question: 

 what is the typical history of a little group like the nine pin- 

 tails feeding before me? 



I could easily visualize what might happen at the next 



