
Oa ne CORE ee ee Se 
THE RETURN FROM THE MORNING’S SHOOT IN THE TIMBER 
looking for a winged mallard drake. He 
is more cunning than the ruffed grouse, 
as wily as a fox, and the way he can creep 
away from where he fell, and conceal him- 
self beyond all hope of detection, has been 
the disgust of many a duck-shooter. 
I have seen them hit the water in an 
almost open space and not come to the 
surface at alJ; at least, not in the open 
water. It might be thirty to fifty yards to 
cover, and whether they swam under water 
to the wild rice and rushes or dove to the 
bottom and clung to the weeds and grass 
underneath was a puzzle. One rule is 
always safe to follow—give a _ crippled 
mallard another barrel just as quickly as 
you can. Don’t wait a second, if you can 
help it. 
In this country, along the Illinois River, 
more mallards are probably shot than 
anywhere else in the United States. The 
flight varies, some years more, others less, 
but always there is shooting here if any- 
where, and as the cornfields and the 
“mast”? always afford plenty of feed, the 
mallards follow this waterway to the South 
in the fall, and thousands of them fall to the 
hunters in the timber, in the pond-holes in 
the timber and in submerged cornfields. 
A corn-fed mallard is a very fine table 
fowl, but lacks the juice of a blue-wing 
teal. When he once gets the taste of 
acorns in his crop, or corn, he will travel 
many miles to get at either food. Here in 
the Illinois River country the overflow 
often takes in pecan timber, and where it 
does the mallards are usually certain to 
find it out and swing in to feed on these 
delicious nuts. 
When “‘duck calls” are used over wooden 
decoys it requires expert use to make them 
answer their purpose. A soft, mellow note 
is preferable, and there are a number of 
calls which have their different uses, such 
as the louder, hailing call, and the lower, 
chuckling, feeding note which is more 
effective as the birds draw nearer. When 
wooden decoys are used, great success can 
be had by skilfully setting up dead birds, 
with a twig supporting their heads, and 
making decoys of them. Awkward placing 
of these dead birds will do more harm than 
good, but when they are set up properly, 
they add very much indeed to the alluring 
look of the wooden decoys. Dead ducks 
should never be left floating. And wooden 
decoys which have been overturned should 
be set right side up at once. 
These little details are of the utmost 
importance in mallard-shooting, especially 
where the birds have been shot at more 
or less. Strict attention to such details 
will often bring fowl in which have swung 
wide of blinds where the occupants have 
been careless of such minutiz. Sink your 
discharged shells; their bright colors may 
be seen by the ducks’ sharp eyes. Keep 
absolutely motionless in the blind, even 
