THE SCIENCE OF SCVLLING WILD FOWL. 217 



that spiked tail makes him look like a thoroughhred, 

 and he is one too. Isn't he grand, with his white breast 

 so conspicuous in the grass? Watch him closely; when 

 he starts he will jump straight up. Hold well over him, 

 he is about sixty yards from us. See ! How uneasy he 

 is getting ; watch him turning around ; don't take your 

 eyes off him. He is afraid to fly now, — No ! There he 

 goes ! Give it to him ! Bang, bang, goes both barrels. 

 No need of the second, for your first did the work. 

 You pick him up, and holding him by the bill at arm's 

 length, admire his handsome neck, with its greenish- 

 brown and purple-red, the snow-white of his breast, the 

 slight cream color on his back, and the deep black so 

 profusely scattered on his wings. Gently stroking his 

 feathers, you lay him in the" boat. You involuntarily 

 sigh, as if it were a relief to draw one good long breath 

 after this exciting time has past, and you say: "If I 

 could only scull ! " And why can you not? There is 

 no patent on it ; there is nothing so intricate about it 

 that practice and patience will not overcome. There is 

 no law written or unwritten, sacred or profane, that 

 prohibits your learning, and if you will only learn, you 

 will never regret it. For time and again opportunities 

 will be presented when other hunters are sitting around 

 camp, waiting for the evening flight. With a scull- 

 boat you can have constant shooting throughout the 

 entire day, in open water, along the edges of wild rice, 

 among the willows and in places inaccessible to every 

 hunter unless he is sculling, and my experience has 

 proven that take two hunters, equally skilled as 

 shots, set them hunting in high water, and the one 

 with the scull will kill twice as many as the one with- 

 out it. 



