LITTLE ROCK - Shrouded in mists of memory yet as up to date as yesterday's whistling of incoming mallard wings, Arkansas duck hunting is one of the state's major assets.

Wintering waterfowl have used the state's abundant shallow flooded areas for centuries. When rice farming began early this century, one more inducement was given the birds to stop and spend the colder months here.

Outdoor writers Steve Bowman of Little Rock and Steve Wright of Fayetteville have published a wide-ranging and entertaining book, Arkansas Duck Hunters Almanac, now on sale at bookstores and sporting goods outlets across the state.

It is an almanac rather than a textbook, a history book or a how-to-hunt-ducks instruction manual. All these elements are included, though. Wright and Bowman have years of newspaper outdoor writing experience, and the book reflects their backgrounds with chapters, anecdotes, sidebars, charts and - most of all - plentiful photos from the past.

The book covers duck hunting all over Arkansas but naturally devotes the most pages to the legendary corridor from Big Lake in northeast Arkansas through the Grand Prairie centering around Stuttgart. It's a book you'll not likely sit down and read from cover to cover, not all at once. You'll take it a bite at a time then go back and re-read passages. You may be inclined to put it with your reference books rather than your history books.

Along with the text describing the fabulous days of duck hunting in early times in Arkansas, Wright and Bowman have let the participants do most of the talking. These are the people who were there, many of them no longer alive or living with memories in retirement.

The legendary photos of ducks at Claypool Reservoir in Poinsett County are prominent in the book, along with the stories by and about such figures as Wallace Claypool, Frederick Gerstaeker, Edgar Queeny, Rex Hancock, Dave Donaldson and George Purvis.

Wright and Bowman are both duck hunters as well as outdoor writers. They didn't sit in their offices and gather information on Arkansas waterfowling; they went to the field with waders, shotguns, cameras and recorders. They listened, they borrowed photos, and they assembled statistics and other data. (more) Arkansas Duck Hunters Almanac (cont.)

Yet, the two authors quickly tell anyone that Arkansas Duck Hunters Almanac is only a beginning, just the first of several volumes needed to cover this diverse and fascinating topic.The authors promise more books to come.

Included on the inside covers are every Arkansas duck stamp issued, from 1981 through 1997. The seasons, bag limits and other details are in a chart. Several pages show an extensive collection of duck calls from past and present.