HOIV BLINDS ARE MADE. 547 



of blinds are made from the reeds or bushes of the 

 marsh along which point shooting is done. On the 

 great lakes and rivers of the North, blocks of ice or 

 heaps of snow are used for winter shooting; and for 

 fall shooting, hiding places composed of flat stones laid 

 up into a wall, and built so early in the season that 

 when the ducks arrive in their migrations, they see the 

 blinds and become accustomed to them as natural feat- 

 ures of the landscape. In the West, weeds, cornstalks, 

 straw and other material commonly found in the fields 

 may be used in the construction of blinds. 



The bough houses in the Chesapeake Bay are built 

 early, and being unoccupied until the shooting season 

 begins, have no terrors for the ducks, which have be- 

 come accustomed to them. These bough houses are 

 commonly built over the water — often at quite a long 

 distance from the shore — by driving down four stout 

 poles until they are solidly fast in the mud or soil, con- 

 necting these poles by strips of scantling or two-inch 

 stuff, placing a flooring of plank on this frame, and 

 then, at the height of three and a half or four feet 

 above the flooring, tacking a railing to the corner posts. 

 Over the four sides of this structure, boughs of ever- 

 greens — cedar or pine — are tacked so as to conceal the 

 fresh lumber and the persons within the blind. On 

 the fourth side, which usually faces toward the shore, 

 a door or passageway is left for ingress and egress. 

 Often the water in the neighborhood is baited. Such 

 bough houses are provided with chairs, shelves for am- 

 munition and other conveniences. 



