590 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
Thus the reader will notice that mallard decoys do 
for nearly every kind, while a sprinkling of blue-bills 
and red-heads make the kind required complete. The 
way to set them out has been fully shown in preceding 
articles. 
lt is a very simple thing to make wooden -decoys, 
and any one with moderate ingenuity can do _ so. 
Should the beginner wish to make them rather than to 
buy, let him select white pine or cedar. Take a piece of 
2x6, and having a good decoy for a model, fashion it as 
nearly as possible to the original. The head and neck 
should be of one piece and fastened securely to the 
body. Fast oil colors are to be used, so that they will 
retain their colors. On the bottom drive in a staple 
and ring to fasten the cord, and put along lead weight 
full length of bottom. This acts as ballast, and the 
decoys always retain their upright position, even when 
thrown into the water. If you buy decoys and they 
do not have this ballast on, put it on yourself; it will 
pay for the labor. I knew a friend to go blue-bill 
shooting with decoys devoid of this ballast, and he had 
to give up using the decoys because they kept tipping 
over. They were the ordinary cheap wooden ones— 
sold cheap. They were blue-bills and red-heads— 
that is what he bought them for. The blue-bills 
had several marks showing what they were in- 
tended for. But the red-heads! Oh, my! they 
would have as readily passed for mallards. I looked 
them over, and to the best of my knowledge they were 
wooden hybrids. They were such as I once saw in a 
wholesale store. I saw two different lots; one could 
buy from these two boxes whichever he desired, red- 
heads or mallards. They looked like neither, but were 
