Oct. 22, 1904.]! 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
345 
Days with the Wildfowl —EL 
Notwithstanding the lugubrious spughing of the wind 
around the ragged corners of the old sod "lodge, and the 
extreme volubility of the coyotes all through the night 
presaged a new brand of weather for us in the morn- 
ing, it did not come, and for once all signs failed. In- 
stead of rain or cold the morning broke beautifully with 
a clear summer sky and a caressing breeze from the 
south. Somewhat fatigued by my previous day's expe- 
rience with Babe on the Bull Camp Lake, I was inclined 
to linger in bed this morning, but along about 8 o'clock 
Gerard burst enthusiastically into the room with an ex- 
clamation that the biggest flight of birds that had yet 
passed over was in progress, and I got . up, hurriedly 
slipped into my duds, and joined him outdoors. 
The first thing I observed when I emerged through the 
low doorway was dotted lines, V-shaped columns, and 
massed bunches of birds streaking the whole heavens 
from the rim of the low sandhills to the southwest to 
the taller range rearing itself like a gray wall athwart 
the northwest, between Hackberry and Watt's Lake. 
There were thousands of them, canvasback, redhead, mal- 
lard, widgeon, pintail, spoonbill, and teal; and they 
trooped across the blue canopy for fully three-quarters of 
an hour, all going in the same direction, and finally disap- 
pearing at the same point over the distant hills. 
Inspired by the spectacle, Gerard and I were not long 
in determining what to do. We would go over to Willow 
Lake, the direction whence the flight had come, and in 
the tall reeds and willows which bordered it, await their 
return. I felt that the birds would be straggling back 
in this direction all through the day, and urging Gerard 
to get ready, I went into the lodge, refilled my shell case, 
pulled on my waders, and as Gerard arrayed himself ac- 
cording to my directions, I discussed the proposed excur- 
sion,- in order that the little fellow might know what to 
expect. 
In the first place, the rest of the hunters, including even 
old Bill and Jim, the chef, had hiked off to the different 
grounds before I was up, and there being no rig available, 
we had to walk to Willow Lake, which lay off to the 
southeast, probably a mile beyond Clear Lake. We were 
then, after we got there, to hunt on a different plan than 
we had yet tried. Hitherto we had done much of our 
shooting from a boat, in which we had plenty of room for 
all sorts of traps, but on the present occasion we had to 
dispense with every pound of superfluous Weight, for we 
would be compelled to do all our work from the shore 
on foot, with a prospect of plenty of wading and walk- 
ing.- Consequently we made our arrangements accord- 
ingly. 
For the benefit of young duck hunters, I will add, as 
many of them probably already know, that inconspicuous 
clothing in shooting wildfowl from a boat, even, is very 
necessary, but in shooting from the shore,, in the sparse 
covering of cane and reeds, your raiment "must conform 
as closely as possible with your environments, for stand- 
ing in shallow water you will have no chance to lie down 
on the approach of a flock of birds, as you- would have in 
a boat. You have simply got to squat as low as possible 
and take your chances. A dead grass colored corduroy 
cap, shooting coat, and Banigan waders, and you are all 
right. For the trip I deftly fashioned a coat for Gerard 
out of an old_ gunny sack, cutting armholes in the same, 
and slipping it over his sweater, and he was rigged up 
about as appropriately as_ I was myself, although his hip 
boots were black rubber instead of canvas,- like my own. 
In duck shooting, hip boots are a sine qua non, whether 
boating_ or wading. And it is always better to have a 
good wide brim to your hat or cap, for it comes in handy 
when shooting against the sun, and acts as a shield to the 
face in wind and rain. Don't fail to see that you have 
your jack-knife and plenty of good stout twine in your 
pocket, for they will both come in nicely oftener than 
you would imagine. 
"What are we going to do for decoys?" inquired 
Gerard, as the sheen of Dewev Lake burst upon us as we 
climbed the last roll in the prairie and began our descent 
toward the low-lying shores. 
"We will not need decoys," I replied, "as we simply 
wade along the shores and jump what laggards there may 
yet be feeding in the rice. However, I think the Judge 
and Thomas were over here yesterday, and I think I 
heard them say they left their decoys on the water where 
they had been shooting; a bad plan, however. Decoys 
should never be left out over night at a point where you 
intend to shoot the next day or any time in the near 
future. The birds get familiar with them, and after a 
time steer as clear from them as they would a man 
standing gun in hand in plain view. If the Judge and 
Charlie did leave their decoys, though, we may stumble 
on them, and if we do, we will abandon; pedestrianism, 
make a blind, and take it easy. But look at that flock of 
gulls; they have been feeding on the minnows and mol- 
lusks along the shallows there. Shall I kill one?" 
As I put the interrogatory, at least two or three hun- 
dred of these graceful black-backed, creamy bellied waifs 
of the air arose from the nearest shore line, and sounding 
in dissonant chorus their weak little squeak, they began 
to knit a network of. soft plumage in the sunlit air, and 
as one, with more temerity than wisdom, came dipping 
down over us, I inquired of the boy whether 1 should 
kill him or not, and getting a half reluctant affirmative 
reply, I cut the beautiful creature out of the air. and it 
carne fluttering down, almost at our feet. 
Gerard picked the bird up daintily by 'the' tip of one 
wing, and as he whirled it around the scarlet splotch dyeing 
its velvet-covered chest caught his pitying , eye, and re- 
pro.achfuly he said: "Oh, Pop, what did you kill it for? 
Poor thing, it could not hurt anything." 
"But you told me to, son ; and then, while I condemn 
the needless destruction of bird life in anyone, I wanted 
you to see this bird, and examine it, as living you would 
have no chance to. It is a good lesson in ornithology, 
and under the circumstances will make a lasting 
impression/' 
"I thought gulls only lived on the ocean and along the 
coast," continued Gerard, folding the bird's wings closely 
against its sides, and wiping the blood from off its pearly 
breast with the tail of his gunny sack wammus. 
"No, they do not. While they are naturally an ocean 
bird, they 'do not confine themselves to its vicinity, but" 
frequent all larger bodies of fresh water, often far inland. 
and ascend all our rivers many hundreds of miles from 
their mouths." 
"There must be many kinds of them, for when out in 
Portland last summer we used to see a half dozen differ- 
ent species, all of them larger than this one." 
"Oh, yes, there are fully forty species of gulls, and the 
most of them are to be found in this country. The bird 
you have in your hands is a lesser tern, one of the 
smallest of all the family. Many of the big salt-water 
gulls are not as harmless as this little fellow, but prey 
fiercely on other birds. 
_ "These terns or sea-swallows are mush smaller than the 
birds you saw on the Pacific Coast, and are much more 
graceful in form and movement. It is doubtful whether 
you will ever see more beautiful exhibitions of the flight 
of birds than those being given by those terns out over 
the lake there. Like the larger birds, they are cosmo- 
politan. Some species are very abundant, others are ex- 
tremely rare. In this country there are at least twenty 
well defined species. Many of them breed right here on 
the open ground among grass tufts, or in some dry nook 
on the lower slopes of the hills. No regular nest is made. 
The young are brown colored. The old birds make a 
good deal of noise when their young are molested, but 
make no attempt to protect them. Look, there is a flock 
of mallards coming back. See them settling there at this 
end of Willow Lake? Come on, let's mosey. We are 
apt to get some fine shooting during the next hour or so." 
_ Twenty minutes later we stood on the last slight eleva- 
tion overlooking Willow Lake, and after surveying the 
charming outlook for a few moments started on down to 
the shore and began our tramp around the lake. 
We had not gone 100 yards when, with much quacking, 
an old hen mallard leaped from amid the smartweed and 
flags, and undertook to curve around over the lake, but 
leading her a foot or two, I knocked her down nicely, 
and Gerard started right out after her. 
"Hold on, there, Babe," I continued, "if you don't want 
to get in over your waders, go around to the right there 
and follow the open water." 
"But it isn't as deep here in the tules, is it?" 
"Yes, deeper. You see those fallen rushes out there in 
front of you?" 
" Yes " 
"Well, when you see them lying like that, you can de- 
pend upon it that they are full of trouble for the inex- 
perienced hunter. Those rushes always flourish on a soft, 
mucky bottom, and you would certainly get your boots 
full if you tried to wade through them. But over there, 
where you see those straight, arrowy fellows, you will 
have no trouble in getting along. They always indicate 
a substantial bottom, and if you work along them, you'll 
not get wet, and nothing is so annoying as to get your 
rubber boots filled with water. You see, Gerard, I want 
you to carefully note these little details, for you will not 
have your old Pop always along with you, and they will 
help you out of many a difficulty in the future." 
The boy then followed my directions, reached the dead 
duck with ease, and picking her up brought her in to 
the shore, and we started on round the lake. 
A. quarter of a mile further down the shore, in round- 
ing a big curve where the rushes grew luxuriantly, we 
suddenly came on to a bunch of decoys dancing merrily 
on the little waves in a little bay, out sixty or seventy 
yards from the sloping bank, and wading out we came to 
a nice round nest in the tules from which the owner had 
been shooting. 
"The Judge's decoys," I remarked, after a searching 
glance at the bevey of counterfeit birds on the Water, 
"and from the empty shells scattered about here, he and 
Charlie must have had lots of fun last evening. Down!" 
From out on the lake, coming straight toward us, was 
a line of birds. At first, from their size, I thought they 
were mallards, but there was too much white on them, 
and I concluded they must be canvasbacks. In another 
second or two they were almost upon us, and catching a 
good view of their long, sharp bills and bulky green 
heads, I knew at once what they were. 
"Mergansers," I whispered. Then as they swished 
down over the decoys and up into the air, like the runner 
of an old-fashioned sleigh, I jumped to my feet, and lead- 
ing the head bird, I killed the third one back of him, and 
with the second barrel dropped one of the tailenders. 
I noticed that both birds — the mergansers- — had fallen 
into the water where it was a trifle too deep for Gerard's 
waders, and cautioning him to remain where he was, I 
went out and retrieved them myself. They were a male 
and female, the former an old bird and in the fullest flush 
of his autumn plumage, with his head as bright green as 
the purest emerald, the splotches on his wings as glossy 
and black as silk velvet, and his body as white as the 
driven snow. 
"Isn't he a beauty?" I remarked to the boy, as I stepped 
inside the -blind and handed the drake over for his in- 
spection. 
"Yes, indeed, he is, and what a pity it is to kill them," 
replied Gerard, as he smoothed out its ruffled feathers. 
"Are they good to eat?" 
"No, not very. They are what we call 'fish ducks,' and 
take no more rank as a table bird than a mud hen." 
"Then why did you shoot them?" 
"Well, to tell the truth, they fooled me until it was too 
late. When I first drew up on them I thought they were 
canvasback, and when I did recognize what they were, 
I was already pressing the trigger. However, they will 
furnish you with another lesson in nature, and the "drake 
we will trv and preserve, and when Ave get home I'll have 
it mounted. They are a very interesting species of water 
fowl, and there are a half dozen varieties of them. These 
are the great American mergansers, the largest of their 
tribe. Generally they are called 'saw-bills' out this way, 
but in the East they are 'sheldrakes,' 'spirit,' or 'fish 
ducks.' " ' 
"Are they plentiful here?" 
"Quite. The hooded variety, a smaller bird, about the 
size of a bluebill, being the most plentiful. They are 
drab in general color, with a chestnut crest on their heads 
extending down over the back of their necks. They are 
seen in greater numbers in the spring, and on the break- 
ing up of the Platte are to be encountered numerously 
along that stream, even the great American variety. They 
come in flocks of from ten to twenty, and even double 
this number,; especially thisjspecies. The hooded variety 
are more solitary, and do their traveling mostly in pairs. 
These big fellows have a steady but rapid flight, pursuing 
their way along the shores two or three deep. I have no- 
ticed the flocks along the Platte in the early spring seem 
to be made up klmost wholly of males, the females fol- 
lowing later in large flocks. See that hawk? Keep per- 
fectly still; I think he will come over us." 
And sure enough he did, a big redtail, and as he dipped 
down close over our heads, we caught the flash of his 
wild eyeball and the orange of his slender legs as he 
swept by._ He did not discover us, and I allowed him to 
continue in quest of his noonday meal unmolested. 
"But the mergansers, Pop; tell me more about them," 
and it was evident that the boy was stirred by the same 
fires that had stirred his progenitor in the years long 
gone by. 
"Well, I don't know what more there is to tell, Gerard 
(there goes a flock of redheads off there over the hay- 
field), only I do know that if you could see a pair of these 
greenheads swimmings along the edge of the ice in the 
spring out on the old Platte, with the snowy bank for a 
background, you would see as hardy a picture as this 
prairie country affords. It is a stirring sight in March, 
on a bright, breezy day, to see the drake, a crimson-eyed 
beauty, feeling fresh in spirits and costume, passing 
swiftly up the broad valley thinking only of the fete that 
awaits him in the far north. Down in Deuel county, 
where I shot in the spring of '94, I saw a good many 
white and black tufted mergansers, but I have never seen 
one up here, although they must come here, as they are 
anything but rare, ana in the fall and winter they go far 
up most all our rivers and visit our inland sloughs and 
marshes. They are shy and vigilant, feeding on small 
fishes, Crustacea and aquatic insects. These they obtain 
without difficulty, as they are patterned greatly after the 
loon, and are magnificent divers. But of all the sawbill 
family, I think our little hooded merganser is the most 
interesting. The Indians use to call them the 'devil duck' 
on account of their mysterious and erratic movements, 
and they would no more think of killing one than a 
mountaineer would think of killing a magpie — it is an 
omen of bad luck. As I intimated before, their plumage 
is composed principally of sombre gray and drab tints, 
but on the inside of the wings there is a lovely pale rosy 
hue, reminding you of a dying sunset flush. We may get 
a crack at one before we leave, and I hope we do, for 1 
want you to see one. Look out there, Gerard, what is 
that coming toward us—there in the water — don't you see 
it?" ' 
'Where? Oh, yes. It is a muskrat." 
While talking I had noticed a small, triangular-shaped 
riffle in the placid waters approaching us, point first, and 
coming evidently from one of the half-whelmed hay-cocks 
which were scattered numerously all over this end of the 
lake. 
Gerard was correct, .and it pleased me to see that his 
lessons in nature's wild ways were not being thrown 
away. It was a rat,, and he was making directly for the 
point of land on which our blind was located 
"N ow keep perfectly quiet, Gerard," I whispered, "and 
we will watch this fellow and see what he does." 
We crouched down low, and through the interstices in 
the tules kept our eyes on the little V-shaped waves ap- 
proaching us. Closer and closer they came, until finally, 
when off about fifteen, or twenty yards from the point, 
we caught sight of the rat's funnv little flat face, with his 
whiskers sticking out- from his puffy cheeks and his nos- 
trils twitching aueerly as he came on through the shal- 
lowing water with the gracefulness of a member of the 
finny tribe. - . 
Right up to the low^ shore he came, and on reaching it, 
halted a moment, lifted up his round head, and with black 
eyes sparkling like diamonds in a brown setting, sniffed 
the atmosphere suspiciously once or twice, just as if there 
was some indefinite taint' about it that he didn't quite 
understand. Perhaps he caught the odor of the dead 
ducks lying at our feet, but if he did he was evidently 
used to it, and apparently unconcerned he crawled quietly 
out upon the bank, his sleek coat shedding the last vestige 
of moisture as if he had been on dry land all morning, 
and shining in the sun like the boa about my lady's neck. 
He waddled up 10 within a vard of the tules behind 
which Gerard and I lay, then sitting up on his haunches 
wiped his nose with one creamy paw, looked sharply into 
our crypt of reeds and flags, then set to work scratching 
and pawing at the roots of the smallest of the tules. He 
soon, with his flat incisors, pulled out a long, slender 
white tendril, and began to munch it complacently, and 
Gerard and I were tickled immensely at the sight. 
Through with the first root, which he seemed merely to 
bite into small fragments, holding it in his expanded jaws 
a brief interval, then ejecting it as if he had extracted all 
its succulency, he again began his excavations. Root 
after root was withdrawn from the soft soil and reduced 
to bits, and at last appearing as if tiring of the diet, he 
backed into the shallow water, keeping his piercing little 
eyes glued upon our blind the while, but evincing no 
timidity whatever. Once in the water, he doused his 
chubby head beneath it once or twice, washed his face 
with his hands, slapped the water joyously with his flat 
tail, rolled over, shodk himself, and then set sail back to- 
ward the submerged haystack, in which undoubtedly he 
had built his water home. 
He had left the shore but a few yards behind, when 
Gerard jumped suddenly to his feet, and with a whoop, 
fired an empty shell at. him. There was an instantaneous 
splash, and from the - midst of a caldron of roily waves 
we saw his flat, hairless- tail spasmodically wriggling in 
the air, and the rai-hM-'igone as completely as if he had 
never existed . ;, 
"Wasn't he funny,'. Pop?'* remarked Gerard, as he 
stepped out of the blind and gathering up a handful of the 
tule chaff the rat haddeft.at the water's edge, came back, 
sifting it through his fingers, and continued: "I do not 
believe he ate a bit of this stuff, and was chewing it just 
to entertain us." 
"Hi§ was getting the juice out of it, that was all. There, 
reach out and pull up one of those tender tule sprouts and 
I will show you what he was after." 
Gerard found the task a greater one than he imagined, 
for he had to give two or three tugs at the wiry° rush 
before its slender white root let go, and he pulled it forth 
and handed it to me, with the remark, "Gee ! I do not see 
how that little animal pulls these things out so easily; he 
didn't seem to exert . himself at all ! . ' 
. "Well, he knows' how. " You see, the all-wise Creator 
has not quite taught us all, and as you go along through 
