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WITH DUCKS AND GEESE IN VIRGINIA Good Sport When Birds Fly South but Not What It Was in Days of Tore These cool bright fall days alone with the news that the ducks are coming in strong on the Sus quehanua flats recall memories to the mind of the writer when he lived on a farm in Tidewater Virginny where the Janus went rolling along its turbid waters moved by the tide as it rose and fell fellThere There are famous ducking marshes lying along the historic stream Wild celery grows there and many years ago myriads of duck made these marshes their feeding grounds groundsWhen When the nights began to be frosty when there yas an occasional light spit of snow In the air when the young wheat was beginning to show above tlie surface of the ground when persimmons were ripening when the logs once more blazed in the open fireplace on an evening then the flocks of ducks aiid Vs of wild geese came from the far north northAt At night after you were comfortably at rest be ¬ tween the covers you would often hear the whir of the ducks flight as they passed over the oldXIiouse that stood near the banks of the Wood River and you knew that the little traveler were cutting the silence of the night in their rapid progress You went to sleep at njght with the great marsh just across the river quiet and the next morning hun ¬ dreds upon hundreds of bliiek ducks and mallards would be disputing happily In the late autumn sunshine their merry quack quack quack evincing their pleasure at being on the rich feeding grounds once more moreSo So along the length of the stream the ducks would be feeding Some would stay for a while then move on further south only to be replaced with other great flocks flocksThere There was sport for anyone who cared for duck shooting whether from blind or skiff and many a pair of mallards or black ducks graced the hospi ¬ table boards of the dwellers in this famed section of the Old Dominion DominionThe The geese would also come in large flocks and feed on the wild fields of young wheat also on the shocked corn Wily were these misnamed birds for they showed great wisdom in generally feed ¬ ing near the center of the fields and with veteran ganders standing on sentinel duty dutyMany Many were the schemes on the part of hunters to get close enough to them to secure a bird or two A favorite method was to traverse one of the long deep ditches that ran through the wheatfield Arriving at a given point the hunter would rise up and give the flock a shot from both barrels often bagging one or more They were also shot from blinds but it was hard work and wild goose meat was not as plentiful on the tables as many other sorts of game gameOf Of recent years the flights of ducks have not been so large but be that as it may the advent of the shooting season here and in Maryland brings to mind November days of yore when the mallards and bhiek ducks made the James River marshes lively J M Bell in American Field
