412 FEATHERED GAME 
seem to gain much on the cripple and you think 
you will try him with a charge of 4’s. Bang! 
and when the smoke has drifted aside—no 
Shelldrake. He is under and won’t come up 
again inside of two hundred yards. After star- 
ing in vain for this bird, which has come up very. 
cautiously and just poking his head above water 
for a breath has as silently gone under again 
for another stretch seaward, you turn your at- 
tention to a second invalid which mayhap leads 
you a similar chase. Perhaps you capture him 
—perhaps not. Your chances are about even 
on either bet. Just here you see a large flock 
making off from your decoys, scared away by 
your antics in the boat, so you decide to pick up 
the dead and get back into the blind. As you 
pull up to the two or three birds left limp and 
lifeless in the water when you went out you find 
them right side up again and not more than half 
as dead as you had thought, and these, too, com- 
mence making frantic efforts to get under water, 
with what success their condition permits. One 
gets almost under and is now politely ‘‘shak- 
ing a day-day’’ with one red foot in the air, dis- 
appearing entirely just as you pull trigger. If 
