274 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTIKG. 



pulled, and the decoy dives almost as naturally as a live 

 bird. When the ducks see it diving, as if for food, they 

 approach it without hesitation, only to learn what a de- 

 ceptive world this is. It is especially effective on a calm 

 day, as it agitates the water, and its movements can be 

 seen quite a long distance. 



Toling and calling are other methods employed for 

 bringing ducks within range. The former can be done 

 in two ways, but the simplest is to wave a gaudy hand- 

 kerchief slowly over a blind or from the midst of a clump 

 of shrubbery. Inquisitiveness being the leading charac- 

 teristic of the canards, they begin to move shoreward in 

 dense masses to see what the strange object can be, but 

 when they come to within a short distance of the 

 land, the majority depart in a hurry without having 

 satisfied their curiosity, while others remain to in- 

 crease the sportsman's larder. The second method 

 of toling is to get a dog trained to keep silent, to 

 run after chips or j)ieces of bread thrown along the 

 shore, and to gambol about in as sportive a manner as 

 possible. The ducks, on seeing his antics, advance and 

 wheel, and rise on their wings in the water, then halt and 

 stare with an expression of the liveliest curiosity and the 

 most intense excitement. The leaders seem to communi- 

 cate their fatuous enthusiasm to those behind, and this 

 increases as they press shoreward, until the dense col- 

 umns seem, at length, to become maniacal in their 

 demonstrations of feeling, for they deploy in every direc- 

 tion, advance and retreat, cross and re-cross each other 

 in heavy masses, and wheel to the right or left according 

 as the dog moves. The concealed gunner watches their 

 movements with the keenest interest until he finds them 

 grouped in serried columns a few yards from the shore, 

 then, rising slowly, he pours the contents of his guns 

 into them, and cuts a swath through their ranks as clean 

 as a mower would lay the grass. The spectacle they pre- 



