POINT SHOOTING. 397 



cash which he is paid for these goes a Httle way toward 

 helping out the family living, or perhaps toward the 

 expenses of next spring's farming operations. 



Certainly, these men are not the least interesting of 

 the inhabitants of the marsh. 



The desirable wind for point shooting is one quarter- 

 ing from behind the gunner. This gives the birds 

 abundant room to swing over the water and to come 

 up to the decoys, offering a good shot to the man in the 

 blind. Sometimes, however, it happens that after one 

 has tied out with the wind just right and everything 

 apparently favorable, the wind will haul more and more 

 in front of him, or may shift suddenly, so that it blows 

 directly on the point and in the gunner's face. One 

 result of this is that his decoys, instead of riding in a 

 long line head to tail, swing around and now sit in the 

 water side by side, their bills, of course, facing the 

 wind. 



Worse than this is the fact that the fowl which come 

 in can no longer swing over the water, but if they wish 

 to alight to the decoys must swing over a marsh and 

 come from behind the gunner and so over his blind. 

 Thus they are quite certain to see him, or at least some 

 of the strange objects that he has brought into the 

 marsh; or if they do not see him, at least they come 

 from behind him, and he is obliged to twist around and 

 shoot at them when they are coming toward him and 

 nearly over his head. For most men, I think, shooting 

 of this sort is very difficult, and usually when such a 

 shift of wind takes place it is better for the gunner to 



