Duck-shooting 125 



in charge alone, her mate disappearing to moult 

 and change his dress, going into a brown plumage 

 for the summer. The marshes of central North 

 America through the fur countries afford breed- 

 ing-grounds for numbers of red-head. The young 

 are fledged in late August, and many are killed 

 near their nesting-places, as they are not wild and 

 are readily approached. In North Dakota a hunter 

 can easily tire of shooting, but destruction of this 

 sort now is fortunately prevented by well-enforced 

 game laws. If other Western states protected 

 their wild fowl against the ravages of the pot- 

 hunter and the wanton sportsman in the same 

 efficient way, much would be accomplished in 

 preserving our wild duck. 



In the fall of 1894, near Sanborn, North Dakota, 

 warm weather had persisted until late September, 

 when the first frost came. A few days later, about 

 October 1, I noticed the first flocks of flight red- 

 head. These passed over high up, for the most 

 part far out of range. The few we killed were all 

 old males with well-marked traces of the summer 

 plumage. This was most apparent in the brown 

 feathers of the head and breast. By the middle 

 of October they appear on the marshes of the 

 West, and are common from the Great Lake states 

 to the Rocky Mountains, and along the Missouri 

 and Mississippi valleys to the states bordering on 

 the Gulf of Mexico. 



