
ON A NEW ENGLAND MARSH. 
the charm of those silent watches in the 
gathering dusk has brightened many a 
weary hour. Three ducks we had, killed 
within 5 miles of the city’s center, not by 
fickle chance, but by patient study of the 
ways and habits of our game, than which 
I know of none more wary or quicker to 
take alarm. Many a night have we re- 
turned empty-handed, but the hunts were 
none the less enjoyable. Indeed, I am in- 
clined to think the pleasure was the great- 
er, in that the shy black fellows had out- 
439 
witted us, and we knew that next time we 
must be still more alert. Perchance a 
mere lifting of the hand had been our un- 
doing. And after all, the game itself is 
but an added pleasure; for, to the true 
sportsman, the real, the true enjoyment 
must ever be in the hunt, not in the kill- 
ing. If the quarry be the winner, his 
pleasure will be but the keener, for he 
knows there still lives game to tax his ut- 
most skill in the future. 

HUNTING 
AVON 
One day last November a friend and I 
tcok.our hammerless guns from their cases 
and started for Bullrush lake, which lies 
over toward the foot-hills, about 6 miles 
from Denver. We left town about 4 o’clock 
in the afternoon, and after getting off the 
electric train at the nearest point, we walked 
2 miles to the lake. There had been a 
light fall of snow that morning, and we 
hoped to reach the lake in time to get a 
brace of mallards as they came in for their 
evening feed. We were a little late, how- 
ever, and arrived when it was almost too 
dark to see to shoot. There were but few 
ducks stirring and we did not get even a 
good shot. 
The sun had long since sunk behind the 
great range of the Rockies and as his 
light gradually died away in the west, the 
nearly full moon sent her shimmering rays 
over the earth. For nearly half an hour 
we stood drinking in the cool, fresh air, 
glad to be away from the office and out 
of the city, even for an hour. 
I had ceased to scan the horizon for the 
approach of those dark objects so familiar 
to a sportsman in watching an evening 
flight, and my wits seemed to have gone 
wool-gathering, when I was_ suddenly 
startled from my reverie by a sharp splash 
in the water just beyond us, near some 
rushes. We decided it was caused by musk- 
rats at play. We walked up to where we 
had heard the splashing, and as we were 
nearing the place my friend said, ‘Watch 
me call out that rat.” He then waded out 
to the edge of the rushes that lined the 
lake at that point beyond which were large 
open spaces or bayous, and beyond these 
again rushes. As I had no waders I was 
compelled to remain on shore and content 
myself with watching the experiment. 
My friend was an adept at imitating the 
quack of a duck with hisown voice. 
When he reached a place that suited him 
he remained quiet for some minutes. 
Then he raised one foot to the surface and 
splashed the water gently, uttering a most 
natural imitation of a female mallard, which 
reverberated over the water in the deathlike 
MUSKRATS. 
WOODS. 
stillness. This seemed to me a strange 
way of coaxing out a muskrat, and I 
thought my friend was jesting, or had 
caught sight of a flock of ducks and was 
trying to decoy them in; but I was mis- 
taken, for in less than half a minute, as I 
watched the water in the reflection of the 
moon, I saw a fine, large muskrat swim- 
ming directly toward him, turning its head 
from right to left as if looking for some- 
thing. My friend stood perfectly still un- 
til the rat came within 8 or Io feet of him, - 
when it ran its head squarely into a charge 
of number 5 shot. 
My friend brought the rat to the shore, 
and as he threw him down on the snow, 
he said, ‘“This rat has evidently been in the 
habit of catching and eating wounded 
ducks, and perhaps of pulling down those 
that were not wounded and drowning them. 
This time he mistook my quacking for 
that of a duck, and you see the conse- 
quence.” 
After a few minutes he admonished me 
to be silent again while he called out an- 
other. Then he waded out again and re- 
peated his splashing and quacking. This 
time he repeated the call several times, at 
intervals of 2 or 2 minutes. Then his pet 
gin spoke again, and another rat life went 
cut. After a few minutes he repeated the 
experiment with equal success, except that 
this last rat was farther out where the 
water was so deep he could not get him. 
The shooting did not seem to frighten 
the rats much, perhaps because they were 
used to the shooting about the lake. 
We skinned the rats by the light of the 
moon, and as we sauntered homeward, al- 
though we had no ducks, we at least had 
some duck thieves, and felt quite satisfied 
with our evening’s experience. 
A week or so later we again visited the 
same lake and on the opposite side from 
the scene of our former sport, my friend 
called out a rat in the same manner, made 
him swim about 40 yards after his supposed 
prey and now his hide is being tanned with 
the others at the furriers. 
