POINT SHOOTING. 2>77 



as he can. As the birds must rise against the wind, 

 they will sometimes come directly toward him for 

 thirty or forty yards before turning to go away ; mean- 

 time, the gunner has covered a good many yards, and 

 just as the birds turn may succeed in reaching them 

 with his shot. 



Canada geese, white-fronted geese and snow geese 

 resort to the cornfields as do the ducks, and often the 

 gunner may return, after his morning shoot, with a 

 very varied bag, which may perhaps even include a 

 sandhill crane or two. 



POINT SHOOTING. 



No form of duck shooting is more pleasing and none 

 more artistic than what is termed point shooting ; and, 

 when the weather is favorable, no form offers greater 

 rewards. 



The gunner's decoys float in the water, a short gun- 

 shot from his blind ; the ducks flying by, see the decoys, 

 and, if all the conditions are right, they are very likely 

 to come in to them. 



This shooting is practiced on various waters all over 

 the country, the conditions varying more or less in dif- 

 ferent places. Thus, on the shores of some of the 

 northern lakes and broad rivers the blind is built of 

 stones laid up in the form of a wall, or, in winter, of 

 blocks of ice. In the marshes of the South Atlantic 



