802 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Dec. 2, 1911. 
breathe comfortably again. A few minutes suf¬ 
ficed for setting out the decoys, and I pushed 
the skiff back into the blind at the edge of the 
island just as the eastern sky commenced to 
pale before the coming dawn. 
Gradually the light increased and nearby ob¬ 
jects lost their vagueness. Now the decoys 
were clearly visible; next the rude scaffolding 
where the carp fishermen dry their nets took 
form in the distance. Still no ducks, and as I 
waited the rain came down again in gusty, 
pelting showers. Then suddenly a louder swish¬ 
ing sounded behind the blind and quickly passed 
around to the left. I dared not turn my head 
to get a better view, but out of the tail of one 
eye I managed to catch a glimpse of a flock of 
five mallards swinging down wind a hundred 
yards away. Would they turn and come in to 
the decoys, or had they already suspected the 
deception? The matter was not long in doubt; 
in a few seconds the diminishing forms grew 
suddenly larger as they turned broadside, then 
dipped lower and lower as they headed for the 
stool. Forty yards away the leading bird 
wavered for an instant in doubt, and then the 
whole bunch flared skyward with franticafly 
beating wings. Maybe it was the disconcerting 
effect of the rain and wind, or perhaps it was 
simply poor shooting; at any rate, the deadened 
reports of the smokeless had no effect other 
than to frighten the birds still more, so that 
they flickered away and were soon swallowed 
up in the blurred distance. 
The super-heated atmosphere about the blind 
was just cooling off after this incident, when a 
lone broadbill, dropping apparently from the 
clouds, plumped in among the decoys with a 
“Hello, boys; how are you all?” sort of ex¬ 
pression. Him I crumpled up as he rose from 
the water in response to a movement in the 
blind, and it was necessary to put out after him 
at once before he should drift into the rough 
water away from the island. Even as it was, the 
tops of a couple of waves lapped over into the 
skiff before I regained the blind. 
A few minutes later three broadbills came 
beating up wind over the island, without pay¬ 
ing any attention to the decoys. One of them 
was tumbled into the cattails with a hearty 
smash, and I thought of the Irishman who, when 
he had dropped a squirrel from the top of a 
big hickory, was remonstrated with by his com¬ 
panion for wasting his ammunition, for “the 
fall alone would have kilt him.” 
It was full daylight now, and here and there 
in the distance strings of black ducks, mallards 
and broadbills circled warily about or rested 
on the tossing water. The first two species are 
common visitors to our meadows, but the 
broadbill is seldom seen here in autumn, except 
during or immediately after a heavy storm such 
as this one. Most of these flocks were far too 
suspicious to come within range in broad day¬ 
light, but three or four unwitting single birds 
ventured to investigate the decoys, and two of 
them, both blacks, were killed at rather longish 
range. 
During a lull in the shooting I was much 
amused by the actions of two hell-divers that 
came bobbing around the end of the island as 
if bound on a voyage of discovery. Side by side 
they passed within a few feet of the blind, their 
heads jerking back and forth as does that ol a 
walking chicken. Totally unconscious of the 
presence of any danger, their whole attention 
was centered on the decoys as something not 
entirely to be trusted. Hardly a boat’s length 
from the blind the little rascals halted and 
seemed to be considering whither to go next. 
Their snake-like necks and heads turned and 
peered about as easily as if attached to the 
bodies with ball-and-socket joints, while at that 
short distance the peculiar hair-like appearance 
of the back feathers was very noticeable. Ap¬ 
parently the consultation was satisfactory, for 
in a minute or two they paddled on along the 
edge of the island, skirted a tiny bay, and finally 
disappeared among the fringing rushes. 
As I turned around after watching the two 
voyagers out of sight, a flock of ten or a dozen 
big ducks was just coming in on set wings to 
the decoys. For an instant, as the gun came 
up, I did not know what sort they were; then 
the brick-colored necks and heads and the gray¬ 
ish cast of the rest of the plumage marked them 
as redheads, extremely rare birds nowadays 
on these inland marshes. A young male 
dropped at the first shot and the others, in their 
confusion, bunched closely. And now I have a 
A CARRYALL was driven rapidly into my 
yard about 6 o’clock on a crisp November 
morning. In it were seated three hunt¬ 
ing companions—George, Fred and Paul. They 
informed me, as they halted at the door, that 
the doctor who had agreed to go with them was 
unfortunately called out on an emergency case, 
which would detain him for an hour or more, 
but that as soon as possible he would have 
Briggs take him over to the proposed hunting 
ground. 
“All right,” said I, “you go on and Hal and 
I will follow in a few minutes. Where shall we 
meet you?” 
“The doctor told us to go right in back of 
Frank’s and hunt to the south, keeping to the 
right of the county road, and he would meet us 
there.” 
“Enough said; Hal and I will find you.” 
They drove off, Hal and I finished our break¬ 
fast, and with our ever faithful Beppo in the 
carriage besides us, we were soon on the trail 
of the advance guard. Now, it so happened that 
the road agents—I mean in this case those who 
were empowered by the State authorities to re¬ 
pair the roads—had been stationed at a point 
some four miles out on the road we were accus¬ 
tomed to take. This was in the immediate vici¬ 
nage of a cider mill, and in consequence thereof 
progress had been confined to a very limited 
area; in fact, the last time I had driven over 
the road I and my companion, upon crossing the 
railway, dropped into an excavation about a foot 
and a half deep upon a pile of round stones 
which had been dumped there. The result was, 
we had to get out and lead the horse through 
the cut, and in so doing the horse lost two 
shoes and was lamed for a month afterward. 
Hence Hal and I decided we would take a 
tale of woe to tell: The shell that had just been 
fired had swelled with the dampness, and the 
slide of the repeater absolutely refused to move 
and eject the empty case from the chamber. 
Just what effect even one more shot would have 
had on that huddled flock is problematical; at 
the time it seemed as if most of the bunch could 
have been dropped with the greatest ease. But 
I did not really want those birds, anyway. At 
least, that is what I told myself during the five 
minutes of strenuous yanking which it took to 
remove that shell. 
This ended the shooting for the morning. 
The wind was dropping rapidly and patches of 
blue showed now and then through the scurry¬ 
ing clouds. There would be more wind after 
the storm cleared off, but the ducks seemed to 
know that it would come from a different 
quarter, and they began to leave for their ac¬ 
customed fair-weather resorts. Smaller and 
smaller grew the wavering dots of the last de¬ 
parting flock; hung for an instant on the 
horizon like the faintest of blurrs; then vanished 
as suddenly as if painted out with the stroke 
of some swift, invisible brush. 
more circuitous course, but a safer one, being 
the same as that taken by our friends in the 
carryall. George’s party arrived at Frank’s at 
7 o’clock, Hal and myself at 8 and the doctor 
at about 10. We had no success whatever until 
the arrival of the doctor. Then it was proposed 
to divide into two parties, and that the lean 
should shoot against the fat. This was readily 
acceded to— ncm. con. The first party com¬ 
prised Fred, Hal and I; the second, the doc¬ 
tor, George and Paul. We were pretty evenly 
matched. 
The first dog to start was George’s Spot, a 
good dog and true, but as soon as Beppo heard 
his valorous voice, he started on a dead run 
after Spot, in hopes to take the lead. His dis¬ 
position is like that of other great dogs and 
men—he would be Cccsar out nullus. Hal and 
I hurried on after Beppo as fast as we could, 
and I am free to confess that in jumping over 
a stone wall in my haste to get somewhere in 
an eligible position for a shot, my career was 
stopped temporarily by an obtrusive grape vine 
which caught me under the chin as I leaped 
nimbly from the wall, and threw me back a 
couple of parasangs, as it seemed, and sent my 
shaded spectacles far into the treetops overhead. 
It is my belief that they are there yet, for cer¬ 
tainly I have never seen them since. 
However, pressing bravely on, I followed the 
dogs. Beppo soon caught up with Spot, and to¬ 
gether for a good part of an hour they ran; 
first one in the lead and then the other. After 
following them across the county road into the 
briers and alders beyond, I heard the doctor’s 
v.oice encouraging the dogs, and took a position 
on a stump and awaited his advent. The next 
instant a gun was heard; it was the doctor’s. I 
knew it, for I had shot it and heard it before. 
The Contest of the Lean and the Fat 
By MOQUIS 
