54^" DUCK SHOOTING. 



The bush blinds of the eastern shore of Virginia, of 

 Back Bay, Currituck Sound, and the other sounds to 

 the southward, which are to-day such favorite resorts 

 for fowl, are much simpler. As a rule, the waters are 

 very shoal, and the bush blinds consist of nothing more 

 than a number of stiff pine branches, with the foliage 

 still attached, shoved down into the water close to the 

 sides of the gunner's skiff. After he has tied out his 

 decoys, he poles his skiff into the open end of this 

 cluster of surrounding bushes, and, crouching down, 

 is perfectly concealed from the birds, except when they 

 are immediately above him. As the bush blinds are 

 often built on the feeding grounds, they are likely to 

 interfere greatly with the comfort of the fowl, which 

 perhaps pass from one bush blind to another, con- 

 stantly shot at as they sweep over the decoys, and if 

 they find all their feeding grounds occupied, may fly 

 a long way, and for some time afterward shun the 

 places where they have been so fusilladed. 



As the goose shooter in the West digs his pit in the 

 stubble, so the goose shooter in the East occupies his 

 goose box, which may be wholly above land or water 

 or may consist of a cask or box deeply sunk in the edge 

 of the marsh or in the mud flat. In either case the gun- 

 ner is wholly out of sight until he rises to shoot, and 

 the birds have no warning whatever. In character, 

 these devices thus are approaches to the battery or 

 sink-box and the sneak boat, which are floating en- 

 gines sunk so nearly to the water level that they cannot 

 be seen until the birds are immediately over them. 



