LIFE HISTORIES OF NOKTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 6 



fn^rfh water under the cover of darkness; it is almost useless to 

 attempt this kind of shooting except on moonlight nights and even 

 then it is difficult and unsatisfactory. 

 Mr. Rich (1907) describes the method used in Maine, as follows: 



Probably the most of these birds which fall a prey to the gunner's wiles are shot 

 from "sinkboxes" and "blinds" in the reed-grown corners of fresh-water ponds, using 

 live decoys to lure the birds on to their destruction. The successful duck shooter 

 must be up betimes and be ready to endure much discomfort, for he must be at his 

 position before daylight in order to get the cream of the shooting, and, where gunners 

 are as numerous as in my section, a late comer is apt to find every stand occupied. 



The decoys are placed before the blind, anchored, as a rule, so that one old drake 

 is somewhat separated from the rest, and being dissatisfied and lonesome, he keeps up 

 a continual remonstrant conversation with the rest of his flock. If a bunch of birds 

 is passing, never fear but he will see them and find means to let the strangers know 

 of his presence and whereabouts, and they, with a sudden turn from their course, 

 with necks outstretched and wings stiffly set, come in at full speed. Now they turn 

 away, careering around the pond two or three times because the foxy old fellow who 

 leads them is not just suited with the appearance of things — -some small matter of 

 suspicion in his mind — but next time around a bird or two in the tail of the flock, 

 more hungry than wise, drop out with slanting flight, then another and yet more, 

 until finally the main body comes in like a flight of arrows. Splash! Splashl They 

 have settled just outside the line of decoys and begin to swim in toward them. Now 

 the gimner waits until they are bunched at a little distance from his " tolers," which, 

 if old hands at the business, at once swim away from their visitors, and when his 

 feathered assistants are surely safe the gunner pulls trigger where there is the 

 greatest number of heads. The encore when the survivors rise like the scattered 

 fragments of a bursting shell will hardly account for more than a pair, but usually the 

 " pot shot " with the first barrel has done grand service toward thinning the game sup- 

 ply, and it is no common occurrence for one gun iu experienced hands to gather in 

 nearly all of the flock. 



A modification of this method, more highly developed and mod- 

 ernized, is practiced in Massachusetts. On the shore of a pond fre- 

 quented by migrating waterfowl, or on an island in it, a permanent 

 camp is built, known as a " duck stand," at which one or more of the 

 gunners live constantly all through the shooting season. This consists 

 of a small house or shanty equipped with sleeping bunks for severa 

 men, a stove for cooking and for heating it and shutters to prevent the 

 lights showing through the windows at night. Along the shore is 

 built a fence or stockade just high enough so that a man can shoot 

 over it; there are portholes cut in the fence so that several men can 

 shoot through it without being seen. The house and the fence are 

 completely covered with branches of freshly cut pine and oak with 

 the leaves on them, which renders the whole structure practically 

 invisible from the lake. The stand is built where there is a beach or 

 a point in front of it, or where a sandy beach can be artifically made. 

 Various sets of wooden decoys or "blocks," as they are called, are 

 anchored at some distance out in the lake. A large supply of live 

 decoys, semidomesticated black ducks, mallards and Canada geese, 



