, 1889-04-27
FLIGHT OF WILD DUCKS.
The canvasback Said to Be Good foI
Eighty Miles an Hour.

Eighty Miles an Hour.
While a reporter talked to q promi-
nent member of the Wawaset Gun club
the other day, the conversation turned
on the speed Of wild ducks, a subject
in which the gunners of this city seem
particularly interested, and n on
which there is some diversity Of opin-
ion. The member said:
Il have held my watch on several
kinds of ducks and geese, but the main
part of what l am going TO tell you
comes from several old hunters who
have favored me with their expert
ences, and one Of these old timers in a
letter says: 1 can tell you Just about
to the sixty-third part Of a dart how
much space any one of them can get
road train that can hold a candle to
one side of the slowest duck that flies
1.-The canvasback a distance the
whole duck family, if it lays itself out
10 do it. When this duck is taking
things easy, enjoying a little run
around the block, as it were, it goes
through the air at the rate of about
eighty miles an hour. II it has bust
ness somewhere and has to get there,
it puts two miles back of it every min
ute, and does it easily. If you don't
believe this, just fire square at the
leader in n string of canvasbacks that
are out on q business cruise some time.
Duck shot travels pretty fast, but if
you happen to hit one, you see if it is
not the fifth or sixth one back of the
drake or leader. A drake does moi al
ways lead, but it generally does if
there is one in the flock; if there are
more they will seldom take the lead.
If you wish TO bring down the leader
you must aim at n space of at least
eight feet ahead of him, and if he falls
you will find him a long distance,
probably two or three squares off.
THE mallard is a slow one; it is all
he can do TO make n mile a minute,
but he can do it if he wants to. His
regular rate is about forty-five miles
per hour.
THE black duck is q slow coach.
He is about as good as the mallard, and
the fntail widgeon and wood duck
cannot do much better. The red head
can go easily and make ninety miles
an hour as long as he likes, all day If
necessary. The blue winged teal and
its beautiful cousin, the green winged
teal, a fly side by side for a hundred
miles in an hour and take it easy.
The gadwale, you sec them here
very seldom, though we'll known fur
ther west on the Allegheny river and
at Kishammock, though looking like
the mallard, is a smarter duck and
harder to shoot. 1t a make ninety
miles in an hour and not try hard.
maybe you think a goose can't hy2
Why, it a double the speed of the
fastest trains on any of our railroads.
OF course l mean a wild goose. Well,
it has n big corporation, but it can get
from feeding ground to feeding
ground so suddenly that it fools our
best wing shots.
"If you see a flock Of honkers NOV
ing along so high up that they seem
to be scraping the sky with their
backs, you would not think that they
were making close on q hundred miles
an hour, but they are. The wild goose
is not much on foot, but itmeans bust
ness every time.
THE broad bill goose ome next to
the ~canvasback duck in speed. Put
the two together and in an hour the
broad bill would not be more than ten
miles behind.
This information has been derived
from experience and correspondence
with life long gunners, and any gun
ner will tell you that what l have said
hits the mark very close. "-Wilming-
ton News.