Wild Ducks 
269 
ately their broad, flat bills have strainers on the 
sides, and merely by shutting them tight, the 
mud and water are forced out of the gutters. 
After nightfall they seem especially active and 
noisy. 
In every slough where mallards, blue- and 
green-winged teal, widgeons, black duck and 
pintails settle down to rest in autumn, gunners 
'wait concealed in the sedges. Decoying the 
sociable birds by means of painted wooden 
images of ducks floating on the water near the 
blind, they commence the slaughter at day- 
break. But ducks are of all targets the most 
difficult, perhaps, for the tyro to hit. On the 
slightest alarm they bound from the water on 
whistling wings and are off at a speed that only 
the most expert shot overtakes. No self- 
respecting sportsman would touch the little 
wood duck — the most beautiful member of its 
family group. It is as choicely coloured and 
marked as the Chinese mandarin duck, and a 
possible possession for every one who has a 
country place with woods and water on it. 
Unlike its relatives, the wood duck nests in 
hollow trees and carries its babies to the water 
in its mouth as a cat carries its kittens. 
The large group of sea and bay ducks, con- 
tains the canvas-back, red-head and other 
vegetarian ducks, dear to the sportsman and 
epicure. These birds may, perhaps, be familiar 
