THE WHISTLER 349 



louder and louder. Down! Down! Just one 

 eye over the top of the rock blind and mind you 

 don't wink that eye! There! They have seen 

 the "tolers" and here they come! Now they 

 set their wings and drop like — like — well, like 

 Whistlers that mean business. Just as the 

 leaders hover over the decoys with wings out- 

 spread let go at them, and as they rise the other 

 barrel speaks. Well done! A few more 

 chances like that and we shall make a bag of 

 birds. 



These ducks are most uncertain fellows and 

 cannot be judged by any set rule or precedent. 

 You may have the finest flock of decoys ever 

 seen and yet the Whistlers may choose to pass 

 them by to decoy to one lone bird sitting in a 

 small opening in the ice a hundred yards away. 

 Why? I don't know. Perhaps experience has 

 taught them that a place where a gunner may 

 hide is a pretty good place to look for him. Be 

 sure that every duck that flies in will drop into 

 that same spot until there is a raft of birds there 

 large enough to satisfy all your wife 's relations. 

 What to do then? Well, have you a sail 

 aboard? Then let us push through or over the 

 ice into that opening and set our decoys in the 



