282 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
this fellow be? Perhaps he had sat upon a cake of 
ice floating down the Delaware on that historic morning 
when Washington crossed in the dim twilight,—per- 
haps at an earlier era in our country’s infancy he arose 
in alarm from a sand-bar in the Mississippi as De Soto, 
on his voyage of discovery, beheld for the first time 
with the eyes of a white man that broad-flowing majestic 
stream. I have always had a great respect for old age, 
and have ever felt satisfied that that goose was the 
oldest and toughest animated thing I ever saw. 
The different ways of hunting geese is entirely de- 
pendent on the locality where they are hunted. The 
manner of hunting them on the Mississippi could not be 
adopted in Nebraska or Kansas. On the other hand, the 
way they are hunted in those States could not be 
followed advantageously on the Mississippi river. 
They are shot on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers 
from sand bars, again on the Mississippi from scull- 
boats. This cannot be done on the Missouri because of 
the swift current. But the most successful manner of 
shooting is that practiced in Nebraska and Dakota, 
namely, over decoys. The decoysare made of tin, iron 
or wood, still better, the thin hard seating used in chairs. 
They should bee light, portable, and taking up the 
smallest space possible, and made to fold. They should 
always be made “ profile,” the body one piece, then the 
neck fastened to it by rivets, then an iron rod extend- 
ing down from the body about eighteen inches, sharp- 
ened at the end, so it can be pushed into the ground. 
The neck folds close to the body, as does this iron rod, 
when not in service, and they take up but little room 
in wagon or boat. They should be painted with live 
colors, the crescent shape of white underneath the head, 
