INTRODUCTION. 15 



confinement, who enjoys the pure air, the refreshmg 

 prairie winds, the glad sunshine, far from city life. One 

 should not hunt for the' purpose of seeing what havoc 

 he can make among the feathered tribe, nor participate 

 in indiscriminate slaughter on a chosen side, for club 

 hunts are barbarous ; rather let him go forth for wild 

 fowl in the crisp October air, when leaves are fluttering 

 to the earth, when the woods and fifelds assume a sombre 

 hue, when sighing winds breathe through the tree tops, 

 when the acorns are dropping, and the pattering of the 

 shucks beneath some tall hickory tree tells him the 

 fox squirrel is laying in his winter's store. One who 

 cannot enjoy such scenes, destiny did not intend for a 

 hunter. 



" Come forth into the light of things, 



Let Nature be your teaclier, 



One impulse from the vernal wood 



May teach you more of man, 



Of moral evil and of good, 



Than all the sages can." 



A creative mind made all animate things subservient 

 to the will of man, and if the amateur hunter will but 

 try, it is within his power to divine the thoughts of 

 wild fowl as readily as the stars are read in the sky. 

 A study is therefore necessary of the habits and resorts 

 of these birds, where they are going and why, their 

 peculiar calls, whether they are cries of fright, or in- 

 nocent cacklings of satisfaction. 



As the mallard is the duck universally found through- 

 out the West, it is the one most fully treated of. Snipe 

 cannot strictly be classified as wild fowl, but being found 

 in the marsh I have taken the liberty to write of them, 

 believing the reader will justify me after reading the 

 article. 



