LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAJST WILD FOWL 219 



in and out of the long grass on his hands and knees, and sometimes this has 

 to be repeated continuously for nearly an hour, making it rather a laborious 

 undertaking, but I have frequently known this device to succeed when 

 others have failed. The stuffed skin of a yellow fox (Vulpes fulvus) is 

 sometimes used for tolling geese, and answers the purpose remarkably well, 

 especially when the geese are near the shore, by tying it to a long stick and 

 imitating the motions of a dog retrieving the glove or stick. 



On the coast of New England in winter geese have been success- 

 fully pursued by sculling upon them among the drift ice in a duck 

 float. The float sits low in the water, with pieces of ice on her bow 

 and along her sides ; the gunner, clad in white clothing, crouches out 

 of sight, and if properly handled the whole outfit can scarcely be 

 distinguished from a floating ice cake. But a much more successful 

 and more destructive, though less sportsmanlike, method is used on 

 the inland lakes and larger ponds of eastern Massachusetts. This 

 is the duck-stand method, which I have so fully described under the 

 black duck that it is necessary only to refer to it here. Perhaps it 

 should have been described under this species, for, although more 

 ducks than geese are usually killed in such stands, the goose-shooting 

 part of it is the more highly developed. Large numbers of live decoy 

 geese are raised and trained for annual use in these stands and the 

 most efficient teamwork is employed. The old mated pairs and their 

 young are separated and made to call to each other in such a way 

 that the wild birds are attracted. An old gander may be tethered 

 out on the beach, while its young are kept in a " flying pen " back 

 of the stand; when wild geese appear the goslings are released by 

 pulling a cord ; they fly out to meet the incoming flock ; their parents 

 call to them and they return to the beach, bringing the wild birds 

 with them. When the geese are near enough and properly bunched 

 a raking volley from a battery of guns is poured into them and other 

 shots are fired as the survivors rise, with the result that very few 

 are left to fly away. Even some of these may return and be shot at 

 again if the leaders or the parents of the young birds have been 

 killed. Such slaughter can hardly be regarded as sport. 



Farther south on the Atlantic coast, in Virginia and North Caro- 

 lina, geese are shot from open blinds in a much more sportsmanlike 

 manner. A bos, large enough for a man to lie down in or deep enough 

 for a man to sit in and barely look over the top, is sunken into the 

 ground on some sand spit or bar where the geese are wont to come 

 for gravel or to rest, or perhaps it is placed on some marshy point 

 on their feeding grounds where it can be concealed in the tall grass 

 or covered with grass to match its surroundings. The decoys, either 

 live birds or wooden imitations, are strung out in front of the blind, 

 and the hunter crouching in the box eagerly awaits the inspiring 

 siffht of a flock of oncoming birds. At last a lono- line of dark. 



