CHESAPEAKE BAY DUCKING. 479 



the decoys set out near it, but for several years after it 

 was built no ducks at all came into the cove, which 

 formerly had been a great resort for them, and the con- 

 struction was regarded as an absolute failure. 



The birds were little disturbed about Carroll's Island 

 except by the shooting on the shore. Batteries were 

 not allowed there, and in autumn and winter no boats. 

 In the spring, however, about the middle of March, and 

 from that to the first of April, the fishermen were per- 

 mitted to draw their nets. When Mrs. Slater owned 

 the island and rented the shooting, there was much an- 

 noyance to the gunners from these fishermen, but when 

 the club purchased the land this was stopped. Never- 

 theless, the fishing rights, rented for the spring only, 

 brought the club an income of $300 a year. 



In the old days on the bar, disputes — very entertain- 

 ing to all except the disputants — sometimes occurred 

 as to the ownership of ducks at which more than one 

 man had shot. As the boxes were not very far apart, 

 it might often happen that a duck flying between two 

 of them would be shot at by two persons, and if it fell, 

 each man would promptly claim it as his duck, and the 

 debates about the ownership were often very earnest. 

 After a while it came to be more or less of a proverb 

 that at Carroll's Island no one could be a successful 

 duck-shooter unless he were also a good claimer. Sto- 

 ries are told of venerable men, occupying high positions 

 in the business or professional world, who almost came 

 to blows over birds that had been killed, and who de- 

 liberately sat down side by side and laboriously plucked 



