76 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
can be got through any gun dealer. ‘They answer the 
purpose exceedingly well, and I use them, although 
should you not have any, set up your dead ducks as 
fast as killed, until you have quite a flock. This you 
ean do by sharpening a small stick at each end, stick 
one end in the mud, the other thrust into the duck’s 
head just behind the base of the bill, under the chin. 
Exercise judgment in setting your decoys, but remem- 
ber, they must assume a natural, easy position, as if in 
life. Don’t point their bills toward the heavens, as if 
the ducks were trying to discover when the storm 
would cease. On the other hand, don’t turn their bills 
toward the water, with neck outstretched, making the 
duck look as if it had eaten something that didn’t agree 
with it; but having adjusted the head and neck properly, 
see that the body is all right, draw the wings close to 
it, smooth the feathers nicely, then step back and look 
at it. If it looks to you precisely as a live duck does 
on the water, all well and good ; if not, experiment 
with it untilit does. It’s these little attentions to things 
that to the beginner may seem time thrown away, that 
go far toward increasing the duck-shooter’s bag during 
a day’s shoot. As good shooting as I ever had has been 
during the progress of hard snow storms, and I know 
no better way to show the young duck-shooter how to 
hunt during a snow storm than to give him a descrip- 
tion of one I had with an amateur as my companion 3; 
and, in order to make it more plain, I will adopt in 
part a conversational style, basing the account entirely 
on facts as they actually occurred, the hunt being the 
second duck shoot my companion ever participated in. 
He could look both with pride and pleasure on his 
business career, but his hunting education had been 
