March, 1921 
138 
FOREST AND STREAM 
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WILKE 
PIPE SHOP 
28 T BROAD WAy 
cor. Reade St, N. NT 
MAIL ORDERS PROMPTLY FILLED 
ROBERT H. ROCKWELL 
1440 E. 63rd St. Brooklyn, N.Y. 
J.KANNOFSKY 
Practical 
Glass Blower 
and manufacturer of artificial eyes for birds, 
animals and manufacturing purposes a specialty. 
Send for prices. All kinds of heads and skulls 
for furriers and taxidermists. 
328 CHURCH ST., Near Canal St, NEW YORK 
Please mention “Forest and Stream^ 
the ranks of the wild turkey, and espe- 
cially true is this of the cut-iover pine 
lands of the gulf states. Therefore, the 
increasing interest in conservation is 
particularly opportune if the welfare of 
these inhabitants of the forest is to be 
conserved. These cut-over pine lands 
are ideal turkey ranges, and, if a rea- 
sonable amount of protection is afford- 
ed the birds in these regions, the ex- 
tinction of the wild turkey will extend 
far into the future. 
THE SLOUGHS OF 
SOUTHERN KANSAS 
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 107 
tragedy of the prairies. Had they 
fallen before the rifle of some ruthless 
skin hunter or had they been surround- 
ed by some ravening band of starving 
wolves, and pulled down one by one? 
Or had they been snowed in, and per- 
ished from the terrible cold of some 
Kansas blizzard? From the position of 
the skeltons, I was inclined to the lat- 
ter view. 
{ TRAMPED for a long time and 
thought I must be near where I had 
seen the ducks alighting, but I could 
see no pond (the rushes here were 
shoulder high). Just then a pair of 
mallards came flying by; a long shot, 
and I missed, but at the report of the 
gun, with a roar of wings that startled 
me, a vast flock of large ducks rose 
from the rushes within a hundred yards 
distance, at least a thousand of them. 
They circled around several times but 
out of gun shot. Then a small portion 
of them settled down again, the bal- 
ance flying off towards the south. I 
found on examination they had risen 
from a small pond of deeper water that 
was covered near the shores with a 
luxuriant growth of water lily or wa- 
pato, on which the ducks were feeding; 
the surface of the pond being covered 
with roots and stems as if a drove of 
hogs had been rooting. This pond earl- 
ier in the season must have been used 
by hordes of erow-ducks, for there was 
a windrow of dead and rotting coots 
around the entire rim of the pond, 
where some hunter had shot them 
literally by the hundreds, and never 
picked them up. Why any one would 
waste good ammunition on those worth- 
less creatures, which are neither “fish, 
flesh or fowl,” is beyond my comprehen- 
sion. 
This pond was connected by a creek 
with another south of it, and I quickly 
fixed a cover in the rushes beside the 
creek and was ready. And then the 
ducks began to come back in large 
flocks and small flocks, singles and 
pairs, a continuous procession. They 
came in very tame and handy, and I 
found they were nearly all canvas- 
backs and veritable butter balls in fat- 
ness. They came so fast that I became 
very much excited, and shot very rag- 
gedly. They fell all around me, and as 
the water was nearly knee deep, in run- 
ning and hurrying to gather the birds, 
I was soon wet from head to foot with 
the splashing water. Then I caught my 
second wind and steadied down, and 
shot much better. 
When I left my companions I had the 
loops of my shooting vest filled with 
shells, fifty-four in, all, and in an in- 
credibly short time they were all gone. 
Never before nor since have I been in 
such a hot corner. They came in such 
large flocks, and the shooting was so 
easy, that I should have killed and 
gathered at least fifty ducks, if I had 
not lost my nerve. As it was I gathered 
twenty-eight, nearly all canvas-backs. 
And there I was with no shells, and 
the ducks coming in by hundreds over 
me, and all around me. They settled 
on the pond until the water was black 
with them. Truly it was a sight to 
gladden the heart of any lover of duck 
shooting. 
And now the sun was getting low, 
and I was confronted with the task of 
carrying that big string of heavy, fat 
ducks, nearly two miles to join my com- 
panions. Filling the capacious pockets 
of my hunting coat with all they would 
hold, I tied the remaining ducks in a 
bunch, which I slung over my shoulder 
across my gun barrels; then, with a 
longing eye on the streams of ducks still 
coming in, I turned by back reluctantly 
on this duck El Dorado and began my 
weary tramp back the way I had come, 
and reached my party just at sun-down. 
They had been having fair success, but 
my great string of canvas-backs 
aroused their admiration. 
A S the evening shades began to fall, 
the ducks and geese began to 
come in to the pond to roost, but 
the wind had fallen and they did not 
come low enough for much execution, 
although we added several mallards to 
our score, and Uncle Billy, much to his 
satisfaction, from a flock that passed 
high over him, brought down our first 
speckled goose. We now had all the 
game we could very well carry, so we 
divided it around among the four of us, 
and started for the house. It was get- 
ting quite dark, but as it was only 
about a hundred yards to the road that 
led to Mr. Scott’s, we believed we would 
have no trouble. 
Soon Andy, who was in the lead, sang 
out: “Here is the road,” and we went 
contentedly on our way. We walked 
and walked, but no house appeared and 
at last we were forced to admit that 
we were lost on the prairie. We held a 
council of war, and decided to follow 
the road a little farther, and then just 
as we were beginning to despair, we 
saw a faint light ahead of us. 
On reaching it, we found a rude sod- 
dy, and when George knocked at the 
door, a rough-looking foreigner came 
out who could not speak a word of Eng- 
lish. George, who was quite a linguist, 
tried him in Russian and German, but 
he could not make him understand. Fi- 
nally I had a happy thought. Getting 
in front of the man, I spread my hands 
out and said: “Old Man Scott.” The 
man immediately spread his hands and 
nodded his head. Going into the soddy 
he brought out a lantern and beckoned 
In II ritmg to Advertisers mention Forest and Stream. It will identify you. 
