and remain about a small pond until in June; but about the time a nest was to be expected, the Ducks 

 would leave. 



These birds are especially fond of muddy pools and ponds overgrown with lilies and rushes. During 

 the spring they frequent the river bottoms, and take great delight in muddy sloughs after freshets. In 

 the fall they feed about ditches and stagnant ponds. They often congregate in large flocks of twenty-five 

 or more, and during midday enjoy sitting on the edge of a mud-puddle in perfect quiet, at which time 

 one can walk close to them without noticing their presence, so closely do they sit to the ground and so 

 protective is their coloring. 



Of all our Ducks the Teal is perhaps the most unsuspecting or unintelligent, or both, for 

 they will usually allow a gunner to walk close to them, without taking to wing, and if they show- 

 any alarm it is to their disadvantage, for when frightened they huddle together so closely that twenty 

 birds will scarcely occupy a square yard of space. The experienced gunner knowing this pecu- 

 liarity watches his opportunity and is often enabled to kill a dozen or more birds at one discharge of 

 his gun. Certainly a cruel and unsportsman like method of procuring game, but I observe that few 

 hunters despise such an opportunity. When surprised and mistreated in this way, the uninjured Ducks 

 take wing, but being loth to leave their dead and wounded companions, or else not comprehending the 

 situation, fly off a short distance and circling about will relight in the very same place or hover about 

 the hunter time and again, until several more shots still farther decimate their numbers. At last the 

 few remaining seem to comprehend that they are in danger and hastily fly away. Often however, they 

 will return the next, and on following days if undisturbed. However easy it may be to kill these birds 

 during their resting period of the day, the sportsman will find it an entirely different matter to shoot 

 them about dark when coming into their roosting places. At this time they fly like an arrow, and a 

 single bird will pass any but the very best marksman. When properly cooked, the flesh is generally excellent, 

 though sometimes it is oily and strong. Birds that have become too fat arc especially fishy. Nearly 

 all Ducks as they come to us, are fatter in the fall than in the spring, and are also tenderer and 

 more edible, but the Teal is better in the spring, because at this time they are not so fat. Every- 

 where they are much prized as table birds, and when in proper form, this praise is very just. 



Like all game birds their numbers are becoming rapidly lessened. Indeed they are but poorly 

 prepared to withstand the everlasting firing of the standing army of hunters equipped with deadly 

 breech-loaders. Nearly every pond is now guarded; nearly every mud-hole has an armed sentinel, and 

 the day is not far distant when this fine little Duck will be as rare as it was at one time common. Such 

 seems to be the fast approaching fate of all our highly prized species. Like the Indian, I look back 

 over years past and deplore the inroad of civilization. My "Buffalo" were the Duck; my "Deer" the 

 Turkeys, the Ruffed Grouse, and the Quail. My "hunting-grounds," the weedy stubble and the unmo- 

 lested wood. Nearly all of these are gone, and gone never to be restored. I can well fancy the deep 

 emotion, the heart-felt wrong of Nature's child, as he witnessed the advance of the tide of empire. 



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