FOREST AND STREAM 
265 
June, 1922 
same result, that I finally grew tired of 
the game and brought some No. 4 into 
play. 
It seems, when ducks are concerned, 
that it is never wise to doubt what 
any man says of them. He is probably 
light. I was paddling down a small 
creek, late one afternoon, when I came 
upon five saw-bills in a clump of rushes. 
I knew they were fish-eaters but had 
never tried to eat one, so I took a ran- 
dom shot into the bunch. Three of them 
rose and I saw the other two lying flat 
on the water. Paddling over, I found 
one dead duck. I knew my eyes hadn’t 
lied and I thought the other fellow had 
swam away, but I couldn’t locate him if 
he had. Finally I found him — four feet 
down in the water, with a death-grip on 
a reed. He came loose when I hit him 
with the paddle, but never again will I 
doubt the word of the man who said he 
always went duck shooting with a rake. 
A.S ordinary gulls do not bear any re- 
lation to ducks, by choice or otherwise, 
it is rather a departure to speak of them 
in the same connection, but one incident 
of which I was a witness, served to throw 
an interesting side-light on their habits. 
At an old fish dock in the upper end of 
the bay thousands of gulls congregate 
before going on their respective raids. 
I approached this place one afternoon 
and they all took to flight in their slow, 
dragging manner but continued to curve 
I gracefully overhead. On closer exami- 
i nation, I saw that two of them remained 
i in the shallow water and as I came 
t closer, one flew. The other would thrust 
its bill into the water now and then, tug- 
I ging in vain at something under the sur- 
i face. Suddenly, a third gull swooped 
■ down and relieved the one on duty, 
which immediately rose and disappeared. 
This newcomer tried the same tactics 
with the submerged burden to no avail, 
until I came dangerously close and it 
took flight. I paddled in and found the 
whitened remains of a turtle. I sup- 
pose, had I gone away, that the entire 
army would have returned to congratu- 
late the lonely sentinel upon the good 
work of saving the bacon. 
i , R. W. Andrews, Minn. 
THE ENGLISH SPARROW 
Dear Forest and Stream : 
IN a recent issue of Forest and Stream, 
* a correspondent gave some of his 
experiences with the English sparrow. 
There is no doubt that the bird is an 
unmitigated nuisance. The indictment 
of your correspondent could be easily 
added to, but there is no occasion to do 
so, as we are all pretty well acquainted 
with the subject. 
However, it may be asserted confi- 
dently that the English sparrow is here 
I to stay. Of all birds that fly, he is prob- 
ably the cunningest. In vain are the nets 
of the fowler set before him. Eor years 
they have been trying to exterminate him 
in England, but I am told that he is still 
practically as numerous there as ever. 
If this is so in England, a densely popu- 
lated country, what chance would the 
United States have, where there is so 
much uninhabited territory for safe 
i refuge? The little marauder would sim- 
I N selecting your revolver 
remember that precision, 
security and reliability are ab- 
solutely essential. It is because 
they excel in those very quali- 
ties that Smith & Wesson 
revolvers have won the title 
“superior.” 
Smith (^Wesson 
z^Tanufacturers of Superior 'Revolvers 
S P R I N G F n: L D 
MASSACHUSl'TTS 
No arms are genuine Smith 
6c Wesson Arms unless 
they bear plainly marked 
on the barrel, the name 
SMITH & WESSON, 
SPRINGFIELD, MASS, 
Catalogue sent on request 
Address Department I 
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