294 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
going ten, even fifteen miles to feed, passing over the 
choicest corn, buckwheat, stubble and plowed ground, 
and then alight and feed in a spot not nearly as rich as 
safe or as protected as many of those passed over. 
The most successful manner, indeed the only way te 
shoot them, after they leave the river, is to shoot them 
over decoys, using such profile decoys as I have de- 
scribed. The hunter firing from pits dug in the 
ground. The pits are usually dug before the day of 
shooting. The hunter notes where the geese have 
been coming in to feed, and there he digs a round hole, 
sufficiently deep, that when on his knees (an unusual 
position for most hunters), by elevating his head a 
little, he can peep over the edge of the hole. The 
diameter of the pit should be large enough to allow him 
to turn easily and quickly, that he may shoot from any 
direction without inconvenience. The dirt thrown 
out is carefully smashed or hid with grass; the edges 
of the blind sprinkled with a little hay and an occasional 
corn stalk, so that everything will look natural. He 
then places out his decoys, scattered all around him, 
forming a circle about thirty yards in diameter. 
He being in his pit in the centre, great care is taken 
that the decoys shall be placed so that the broad side 
of the profile will show plainly from any direction the 
geese may come. 
Less than four years ago my brother George and my- 
self spent two days with these honkers, near the Platte 
river. One cold November morning, almost in Decem- 
ber, found us at break of day, impatiently waiting the 
flight, secreted in the recesses of an old fence, 
thoroughly hidden from sight by great tumbling weeds, 
which the Northwest wind drove upon us. The whis- 
