The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-03

bending his knees and lowering the neo-
phyte close to the ground, he would rise
steadily but swiftly and hurl the bird into
the air. Insunetively she put out her
wings and circled around the barn-yard,
descending gradually, and at the same time
setting up a most hopeless racket, nat
urally starting the other twenty-nine, who
fancied this was Henry calling them to
dinner.
After months of trial and tribulation,
with sometimes a broken back and con-
sequent duck funeral, the birds grasped
the meaning of this peculiar flight; and
Henry could then stand behind his barn
ard fence and, by throwing up one bird
after another give you and any stray
wild ducks flying past the impression that
there was a duck Valhalla in the vicinity.
This stand was of the usual pond or lake
type. The hut had been set back among
the pines and cedars, and as they had no
leaves TO shed in winter, they completely
covered the little house from top to bot
tom. The yard or stand proper was sur
rounded by a five-foot board fence, bank
ed up outside with small frs and pines to
initiate an enormous pile of brush. And
Henry had brought his architectural gray
matter into requisition to construct gates
leading out to the beach at either side
with small openings in them through
which the ducks could enter or leave the
stand. At the end of the yard which abut-
ted on the waters edge, he had drawn on
the military portion of his inexhaustible
store of knowledge and constructed two
bastion-like wings, one of which permit
ted the gunners to fire eastward, and the
other westward, while the stand itself fac
ed to the north. BY running low bench
along this lower end he had made it pos
sible for those inside to kneel and fire one
barrel through the loop-hopes, and then
jump up and take the second barrel on the
wing over the top of the stand.
All this was observed largely without
the use of eyes while Henry was opening
the gates and taking some of the ducks
outside. And in this bitterly cold water,
which froze on the ducks feathers as soon
as it touched them we tied those I'M
offending creatures by the leg to a cord
which ran out on the water and then dis
appeared in the darkness. 1t appeared
that this glacial cord was a runner" and
that it extended out into the pond 400 feet
to a pulley in the end of a long rope, which
was anchored in such manner as to be
held just under the surface. The line rum
ming through this returned to the stand,
passed through small hole to the inside,
and out again through another until, at
the end of its S00-foot journey, it Joined
Itself and formed a circuit
To this the ducks were tied one by one
with a leather moose. AS one bird was
ldSleleu anu dropped lHtO the icy water
] pulled in on the other part of the rope,
and gently forced Mistress Duck three or
| four feet out on the black water. Thus in
| a few moments we had what to any wild
duck, to say nothing of any tame man,
would appear to be a flock of birds swim
ming about at random and raising a horri-
bic racket i'll all this silence Of the night.
| The thing was repeated with more ducks,
| on another and similar endless runner,
| which ran TO another SnOt on the OOnd
| This done, Henry directed me to pull
| first one and then the other flock out to
the pulleys, while he moved up and down
| the beach and stationed eight or ten soli-
tary ducks at intervals, after the manner
| in which any other mortal would have tied
| dogs or anchored boats. Each of these
! had a yard or more of rope, ana each
could paddle in the water or climb up the
beach, squawking all the time to her
| hearts content.