The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-13

more times than he will shoot straight
mensely to its value.
In middle September there is no such
thing as pass shooting OF bluewings because
they are mer,ly voyagers and have not
established any passes. and it is rare that
any detached flight shooting at dusk is
to be obtained because their roosts are not
fixed. 1t IL possible, however, to find big
lake upon which they hove showed and q
bin d built upon it may result in getting
few shots through the day and more
OF them az other birds come in from he
north between s',ndown and dark
1t il in blind SO built that the gunner
gets his strongest impression of the velocity
OF the teal, for the birds are often visible
half mile away when coming in. There
have been various calculations of the teal's
speed-the bluewing and greenwing varie-
ties do not differ in this respectand while
they vary, the calculators unite in saying
that the teal is the swiftest by far of all
American ducks
Some attempts TO time teal were made
a lew years ago by sportsmen on the coast
OF Texas. They found a straight stretch
OF bayou in the Matagorda country, meas
ured on half mile, and took their stands on
1t several afternoons when the birds we're
flying out from the fresh water SIENNA ponds
inland to the Gulf to roCst. As ga teal passed
the first man he fireda gun, and the second
man timed it as nearly as possible with a
stop watch. BY allowing for the time
the sound required to travel the half mile
fairly accurate estimate Of the birds
speed was obtained.
This was found to vary with individuals.
Some of them flew at the rate of 100 miles
an hour, some as high as l25 miles an hour.
II seemed to be demonstrated that teal can
60 at the rate Of 1875 miles an hour and it
is not believed that any other duck nearly
equals this velocity.
Taking the teal as measure the mallard
does not 90 more than eighty miles an hour
and the butterball and bluebill not more
than from ninety five to hundred. The
other ducks, sprigtails. widgeons. CAD,
and the butterball The canvasbacks and
redheads are faster than the mallard. and
Of these the redhead IL the speedier.
The allowance that a man in blind will
make for teal crossing at forty yards will
depend upon the quickness Of his powder.
the size of his shot. the apparent speed Of
the bird. whether he swings the gun
tons. In any event, il he makes a kill
he will have led the bird by much greater
space than the inexperienced man would
believe to he possible.
A teal going at 100 miles an hour is flying,
in round numbers, ITS feet a second. II
only the twentieth part of second elapses
between the ignition OF the cartridge and
the arrival Of the shot at the line of the
ducks passage the muzzle must have been
aimed slightly more than eight feet ahead
of the flyer and that il nearly three wards,
The fact IL that with even the Quickest
Of the nitrate nowders more than a TWEEN
tieth of a second elanses between the pres
s,,re of the finger ON the trigger and the
arrival of tho sbo, and ayan II tho g,,n
;s sw;noino as rsn1,iv as tho h;rd aies and
10 Lsnt sw;na;naf az aan foot ahaad 10 q
so,n, a,lownSnas nav vii, LII rora
h;rds ~ tb;s L;rd 70 ha a;,ns ,v n foot
aha.d tha,, 70 he roc =, nar,.ow II d,,u.n ~
tar sao t''o1' IN 'o v 'ee W ""''o" ~ W
Th;s e. orto,, s,o,, :, s,;n ., ,,ss;,,
al, - hI,,a,,,nos ,,,h;nh - g, nn.,,hnS
nu UtH Gov Ssihi,. tsn ",,S ~. 7o,n Yrss