344 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
for a hatchet, which should be inseparable with it, and 
whose edge should always be sharp. You will appreci- 
ate it every time you build a blind of willows, for with 
it the most perfect brush blind is the work of a few 
moments. My shell-box is made of wood, painted lead 
color, water-proofed, has leather handle on edge, is 
16 1-2 inches long, 10 inches wide, and 6 1-2 inches 
deep. I always use it for aseat. Don’t consider your- 
self properly accoutred unless you have a rubber coat. 
Get a good one, dead-grass color, tough. Depend on 
it, it will be a good investment, for it will last for 
years. The most pleasant morning may be only a 
deceitful prelude that will be followed by a stormy 
day. 
You will find many recesses in your boat; any one 
of them will make an excellent receptacle for a coffee- 
pot,—not a great, ill-proportioned thing, but a little 
two or four-quart pail, which will afford you more gen- 
uine luxury than anything you ever carried with you. 
Consider one of these part of your outfit, and always 
have it with you in the boat. 
Buixps.—The bump of secretiveness of the duck- 
shooter should be fully developed, and if extra large 
the better, for the surest road to success is the aptness 
that one shows to hide himself properly at any and all 
places, and to do it without changing the appearance 
of the place where he is hidden. He should be thor- 
oughly secreted; still, in thus placing himself out of 
sight, he must always have uppermost in mind the 
thought of building his blind just sufficiently thick and 
hich to afford him ample protection, without conspic- 
uity. All beginners try to build a blind that will hide 
them, never thinking for a moment that while they are 
