WILD DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 179 



the others follow, keeping the same general route, 

 unless they see something to make them swerve 

 from it. 1 then select the best spot I can find to 

 lie down in — that- is, the one most screened from ob- 

 servation and beneath the line of flight. A rub- 

 ber blanket being spread, down I go on my back, in 

 clothes the color of the grass or ground I lie on. 

 This is an essential point. It is useless to expect 

 the ducks to continue their flight over an object 

 in dark clothes lying upon faded grass, or over a 

 man in light clothes lying upon black ground. My 

 shooting suit is corduroy, with a cap of the same ; 

 and as it is about the color of the grass, corn- 

 stalks, and weeds late in the fall, it answers very 

 well. If the shooter has no corduroy clothes, let 

 him wear a linen duster over his dark clothes". 

 The latter may do very well for a patch of black 

 ground in a corn-field, or a dark ground at a 

 crossing-place ; but usually corduroy can be made 

 to suit anywhere by a little care in selection, 

 because dead grass and weeds nearly everywhere 

 prevail. A man in dark clothes by a pond in 

 the prairie would not get a duck in a day, no 

 matter how numerous they might be in the 

 neighborhood. Ducks are wary birds and very 

 far-sighted. But some men seem to believe that 



