Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1885-03-21
Flight of Wild Fowl.

GIVE held my watch OH about
every kind Of wild duck there is
said r.. w. Winans, an old-timt
wild-fowl hunter. "and | can tel
Just about to the siXty-tiirtl par
Of a dot how much space any Que
Of 'ein can get over in an hour
There's no railroad train on the
continent that can hold a candle tc
one side OF the slowest duck that
flies.
"The canyasback can distance
the whole duck family, if it lays
itself out to do it. When the can
vasback is out taking things easy,
enjoying little run around the
block, as it were, it joys through
the air at the rate of eighty miles
an hour. fit has business some
where and has to get there, it puts
two miles behind It every miDute
it keeps its wings Tapping, and
does it as easy us y0n or | would
step into Fritz's and call tor beer.
If You don't believe it, just fire
square ut the leader in II string of
canvaSbacllS that are out on a bust.
ness cruise some time when YOU
get the chance. Duck-shot travels
pretty quick, but if your charge
brings down any one Of these duclS
ut all, I'll blow you off to Il pair Of
the best there is IN tile market,
with trimmings and all, it it isn't
the fifth or sixth one back from
the leader that drops. fSou have
the f.inte>t idea that you will
bring the leader down. you must
ahead ofhim. Then he'll run plumb
against your shot. When he drops
you will find him a quarter of a
mile or so on.
Tho mallarl duck iSa slow coach
It's all he wants to do TO so a mile
Il minute, but he can do it when 1t
is necessary. His ordinary every
day style of getting along over the
country gets him from place to
place at about q forty-fve,mile-an.
hour rate. The black duck is about
IN even match for the malIard, and
the pintail, wldgeon, and wood
duck can't do much better. The
retlIea,l can sail along with ease
and cover his ninety miles an hour
as long as he feels inclined to. The
blue-winged teal and its handsome
cousin, the greenwinged teal,
could fly side by side for a hun
dred miles and make the distance
neck and neck, for one can fly just
as fast as the other, and TO go a
hundred miles an hour is no hard
task for either Of them. The CAD.
wale-you don't know what gad-
vale is, III bet! thought not
Well it's a duck that do sn't get
east very often, butitis we'll known
in the west. 1t is something like d
lnallard, only harder to shoot, be
cause it is not so unsuspecting as
the nallarl. The gadw;lIe is some
thing Of a daisy on IL fly, too, and
will win money for You every time
if you bet it can make its ninety
miles an hour.
"AIaybe you wouldn't think thai
a goose could almost double dis
count the fastest express train thai
runs on our railroads, but it Cal
every time. / mean a wild goose
1t has "a big, heavy body to carry
but it manages to glide from one
feeding ground to another with
suddenness that is Il caution tC
wing shots. To see a flock OF honk
ers moving along, so high up thai
they seem to be scraplng their
bucks against the sky, you'd never
believe they were travelling be
tween eighty and a hundred miles
an hour, but they are. The goose
never has any time to fool away
and his gait is always a business
one.
"The broadbill duck is the only
wild fowl that can push the can
vasback OH the wing. Leta broad
bill and ii canya>back each do his
best for an hour, and the broadbil
would only come out about tel
miles behind. a hundred and tel
miles an hour can he done by thu
broadbill, and he, consequently
makes a mark for shotgun that
greenhorn wouldn't hit once il
twenty-seSen years."-New Yorl
Sun.