26o DUCK SHOOTING. 



here, but on some ponds of still water they decoy splen- 

 didly, and good bags may be made on any decent day. 



After the geese had, in large measure, been driven 

 away from the Platte, good shooting was had on the 

 Arkansas River. The method of gunning on this 

 stream was to choose an island as near the centre of 

 the river as possible, where there was a good sand-bar 

 for decoys, within thirty or forty yards of the island, 

 and to dig a pit and shoot the geese as they came in to 

 the decoys. Often the shooting was very good here, 

 and frequently the bag was a mixed one, for ducks fre- 

 quently came up within shot, lured by the goose decoys. 

 In this shooting, bags of from 25 to 40 geese and 15 to 

 20 ducks were often made. 



WITH LIVE DECOYS. 



Except in a few places in the East, goose shooting is 

 hardly at all practiced, and to the gunner of the north- 

 east coast a goose is the greatest of all feathered game. 

 By accident a few are killed every year at various points 

 on the New England coast, but at one or two places in 

 Massachusetts, and from Maryland southward, many 

 geese are killed annually. 



In these localities it is desirable and almost necessary, 

 however, to use live goose decoys. These are set out 

 within gun-shot of the blind, and their movements and 

 vociferous calling lure down their wild relatives, which 



