524 DUCK SHOOTING. 



number of steel wires about an eighth of an inch in 

 diameter, and two feet long, and as the birds are killed 

 these wires are set in the mud and run up through the 

 duck's neck just far enough to allow the duck to rest 

 as though sitting on the water. 



Sometimes at the edge of a pool, or little bay, where 

 ducks have been feeding, a dozen sods or lumps of dirt, 

 of the right size, scattered on the margin and in the 

 shoal water, may attract the birds and bring them 

 down within shot. At certain points in North Caro- 

 lina we have seen these clods prove very successful 

 decoys. 



As has been said, the value of a stand of ordinary 

 wooden decoys is many times increased if there are 

 added to them a couple of live decoys. These, when 

 properly trained, are usually on the watch for birds 

 in the air, and will quack vociferously at black birds, 

 buzzards, herons, or wild geese. If they are not 

 trained, good work for at least a part of the day may 

 be had by separating them, tethering the drake at the 

 head of the decoys and the duck at the foot. They 

 will talk to each other at frequent intervals, and when 

 they see other ducks in the air, both will call. If the 

 weather is mild and still, artificial decoys which have 

 no motion loom up tremendously over the smooth wa- 

 ter, and black ducks, widgeon and some other species 

 will not come anywhere near them; but a single live 

 decoy, moving about in the water, calling now and 

 then, and dabbling or splashing, will bring in a bunch 

 of birds at once. They seem to lose all suspicion and 



