Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-03-01
TWO MILF S A MINUTE.

wild Fowl that Could Make Loops
Around the Smokestack of the Best
Locomotive.
''Ive held my watch on about every
kind of wild duck there is" said z. w.
Winans, an old-time wild-fowl hunter, to
New York Sun reporter, ''and 1 can
tell just about to the siXty-third part of a
dot how much space any one of 'em can
get over in an hour. There's no railroad
train on the continent that can hold a
candle to one side of the slowest duck
that flies.
The canvasback can distance the
whole duck family, if it lays itself out to
do it. When the canvasback is out TAX
ing things easy, enjoying little run
around the block, as it were, it logs
through the air at the rate of SO miles an
hour. If it has business somewhere and
has to get there, it puts two miles behind
it every minute it keeps its wings flap
ping, and does it as easy as you or /
would step into Fritz's and cali for beer.
If you don't believe it. just fire square at
the leader in a string OF canvasbacks that
are out on a business cruise some time
when you get the chance. DuckshOt
travels pretty quick, but If your charge
brings down any one of these ducks at all.
I'll blow you off to a pair of the best there
is in the market, with trimmings and all,
if it isn't the fifth or sixth one back from
the leader that drops. If you have the
faintest idea that you will bring the leader
down, you must aim at space not less
than ten feet ahead OF him. Then he'll
run plumb against your shot. When he
drops you will find him quarter of a
mile or so on.
the mallaTd duckis a slow coach. It's
all he wants to do to 90 a mile minute,
but he can do it when it is necessary.
His ordinary, every day style of getting
along over the country gets him from
place 70 place at about a 45 milo an hour
rate. The black duck is about an even
match for the mallard, and the pintaIl,
widgeOn, and wood duck can't do much
better. The Tedhead can sail along with
ease and cover his 80 miles an hour as
long as he feels inclined to. The blue
winged teal and its handsome cousin. the
green winged teal, could fly side by side
for 100 miles and make the distance neck
and neck, for one can fly Just as fast as
the other, and to 90 100 miles an hour is
no bard task for either of them. The CAD
wale-yOu don't know what gadwale is,
Tll bet! | thought not. Well, it's a
duck that doesn't get East very often, but
it is well known in the West. 1t is some
thing like a mallard, only harder to shoot,
because II 10 not SO unSuSpecJlng as the
mallard. The gadwale is something OF a
daisy on the fly, too, and will win money
for you every time if you bet it can make
its 80 miles an hour.
''Maybe you wouldn't think that a
goose could almost double discount the
fastest fast express train that runs On
our railroads, but it can every time. l
mean a wild goose. II has a big heavy
body to carry, but it manages TO glide
from one feeding ground to another with
a suddenness that IL a caution to wing
shots. To see'a flock of honkers moving
along, so high up that they seem to be
scraping their backs against the sky,
you'd never believe they were travelling
between eighty and hundred miles an
hour, but they are. The wild goose never
has any time to fool awaT, and his gait is
always a business one.
'SThe broadbill duck is the only wild
fowl that can push the canvasback on the
wing. Let broadbill and canvasback
each do his best for an hour, and the
broadbill would only come cut about ten
miles behind. A hundred and ten miles
an hour can DE done by the broadbill, and
he, consequently, makes mark for a
shotgun that a greenhOrn wouldn't nit
once in twenty-seven years."