Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-02-19
Speed Of Canvasback and Other
Ducks.

Give held my watch ON about every
kind of wild duck there is" said an
old time hunter, land can tell just
about to the sixty-third part of q
foot how much space any of them can
get over in an hour. There is no rail-
ROAD train on the continent that can
hold candle to the side of the slowest
duck that flies.
'"The canvasback can distance the
whole duck family, if it lays out to do
it. When the canvasback is out tax
ing things easy, enjoying little run
around the block as it were, it joys
through the air at the rate Of 80 miles
| an hour. Ii it has business somewhere
and has to get there, it puts two miles
behind it every minute it keeps it's
wings Tapping, and does it as easy
as you or l could step into Fritz s
and call for beer. If you don't
believe it, just fire square at
the leader in q string OF canvas
backs that are out on. a business
cruise some time when you get a
chance. Duckshot travels pretty
quick, but if your charges bring down
any Of these ducks at all, I'll blow you
off to a pair of the best in the market,
with trimmings and all, if it isn't the
fifth or sixth one back from the lead
er that drops. If you have the faint
est idea that you will bring the leader
down, you must aim at space not less
than 10 feet ahead of him. Then he
will run plump against your shot.
| When he drops, you will find him a
quarter Of q mile or SO on.
| "The mallard duck is q slow coach.
It's all he wants to do to 60 q mile a
minute, but he can do it when neces-
sary. His ordinary, every day style
of getting along over the country gets
| him from place to place at the rate OF
40 miles an hour. The black duck is
about an even match for the mallard,
and the pin tail, widgeon, and
wood duck can't do much bet
ter. The redhead can sail along
with ease and cover his 80 miles
an hour as long as he. feels inclined
to. The blue-winged teal and it's
| handsome cousin, the green-winged
teal, could fly side by side for hun.
| dred miles and make the distance
neck and neck, for one can fly just as
fast as the other, and to go 100 miles
an hour is no hard task for either OF
them. The gadwale-you don't know
what a gadwale is, I'll bet! / thought
not. Well, it's a duck that doesn' t
get East very often, but is we'll known
in the West. It is something like a
mallard only harder to shoot, because
it is not SO unsuspecting as the NAL
lard. 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 it's 90 miles an hour.
tMaybe you wouldn't think that a
goose could almost double discount
| the fastest train that runs on our
railroads, but it can overy time. It
has a big, heavy body to carry,
but it manages to glide from one
feeding ground to another with q
suddenness that is caution to
wing-shots. To see crowd Of hon
kers moving along, so high that they
seem to be'scrapingt their backs against
| the sky, you would never believe they
were travelling between 80 and loo
miles an hour, but they are. The wild
goose never has any time to fool away,
and his gait is always q business one.
tsThe broadbill duck is the only wild
fowl. that can push the canyasback on
the wing. Let q broadbill and 9 can
vasback each do his best for an hour,
and the broad bill would only come out
about ten miles behind. a hundred
and ten miles can be done by the
broadbill, and he,c onsequ ently makes
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