WILD DUCKS AND WESTERN PUCK-SHOOTING, 175 



thousands by the 1st of March. When they first 

 come to the prairie States in the spring, they 

 are in poor condition, but after feeding about tho 

 corn-fields a short time they become plump and 

 fat. Ducks, wild and tame alike, are great feed- 

 ers, and will be found eating in the evening 

 long after other birds have gone to roost. The 

 mallards and pintails fly from their roosting- 

 plaees on the water to the fields at early morn- 

 ing, and on wet, cloudy days remain in the 

 corn-fields all day. They are so numerous that 

 the fields appear at such times to have ducks 

 scattered all over them. On clear days they do 

 not remain in the fields on the feed all day, 

 but return to their haunts on the water about 

 nine or ten o'clock. In the afternoon they fly 

 to the corn-fields again about three or four o'clock, 

 when they first come from the south; but after 

 being with us some time their evening flight to 

 the fields is not made till sundown, and some- 

 times not till it is nearly dark. The mallards are 

 then paired off", but not so the pintails. When 

 not in the corn-fields, both kinds are about rivers 

 and ponds. 



The blue-winged teal and the green-winged, 

 with the widgeon, use more about sloughs and 



