176 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 
Horse Prairie, but afterward it turned out to be Howard meadows. 
We thought this a good place to turn in for the night. The cabin was 
an old deserted cabin, which was well ventilated with large cracks in 
the sides and big holes in the roof. We cut some fir boughs to make 
us a feather bed and built a fire in the center of the cabin, but we 
did not sleep much that night. I happened to have three green onions 
in my coat and these constituted our bill of fare for supper. About 
three o’clock in the morning we became very thirsty. We remembered 
a spring of water we passed the evening before about a mile from 
the cabin and we struck out for it single file. In the morning we 
heard a cowbell off in a westerly direction—the sweetest music we 
had ever heard. Going in the direction of the cowbell, we soon came 
to a house and learned that camp was exactly in the opposite direction 
from the way we had been going and that we were then about two 
miles due east of camp. We got into camp about eight o’clock, in time 
for a late breakfast, and maybe you think we didn’t do justice to the 
breakfast that Simmons got for us. The boys told us that when we 
did not get into camp by dark that they fired off their rifles at 
different intervals until about ten o’clock and that Hill, feeling him- 
self to blame because he did not keep me with him, had gone way 
up the creeks, shooting off his rifle. Hill told me that when he said 
we were below the Shambough meadows that he meant south and that 
he always called south below. That accounted for me going up the 
creek to find the meadows instead of going north and down the creek. 
None of the party hunted very much that day,.as the boys stayed 
around camp listening to our experiences. The next morning I “hot- 
footed” it in home, as I had some business to attend to and had 
enough deer hunt for one time. The same day I left Jones killed a 
yearling and the boys broke camp and came home. They still con- 
sidered the partnership in existence, however, and gave me a nice 
juicy steak of venison, but I doubt very much if it tasted better than 
the three green onions. 
HOW THE WOOD DUCK GETS YOUNG 
FROM NEST TO WATER 
By Deputy WarDEN GEo. W. .RUSSELL. 
As there seems to be some doubt in the minds of people who | 
have made a study of bird life as to how the wood duck gets its young 
from the nest into the water, I am going to give them the benefit 
of my personal observations in this matter through the columns of 
The Sportsman. 
During my boyhood days it was my privilege to watch a pair of 
wood ducks accomplish this feat, not only once but several times. In 
an old ash tree that stood near a small stream on-my father’s farm 
a pair of wood ducks built their nest for three or four years. The 
nest was about twenty feet from the ground in a hollow place in the 
tree. When the young ducks were hatched the old duck would take 
one by the neck with her bill and carry it to the water. After placing 
it in the water she would return to the nest immediately and get 
another, continuing the operation until all were in the water. 
The California Valley Quail liberated by the State Fish and Game 
Commission in this locality have increased rapidly and seem to have 
withstood the past winter much better than.the native quail. While 
in that locality a few days ago I saw a great many male birds and in 
the evening I could hear their peculiar call everywhere. 
