6o6 DUCK SHOOTING. 



many localities where batteries are used it is a common 

 practice for the tender, after the morning flight is over, 

 to visit in his sail boat all the rafts of fowl in the vicin- 

 ity, and "stir them up," in the hope that some of them 

 may go to the decoys near the box. 



Battery shooting is still practiced in our southern 

 coast waters. The batteries are located on the feeding 

 grounds, and are rigged out with large stands of de- 

 coys. There is nothing whatever to arouse the suspi- 

 cion of the oncoming ducks, which go directly to the 

 decoys, and then are shot at, apparently from the sur- 

 face of the water. It is true that after a time birds 

 learn to know the batteries, and after they have been 

 shot at a few times they often scatter, leaving the 

 ground where the batteries are anchored, and disperse 

 in small bunches to other localities where batteries are 

 not anchored. 



The bush blinds, so often referred to, are commonly 

 used by gunners on the Chesapeake Bay and its tribu- 

 tary waters, as well as on shoal waters further to the 

 southward. They are described in another place. Usu- 

 ally they are set up on shoals, in the broad water, and on 

 feeding grounds near the shore, in the line of the ducks' 

 flight, and, being built before the birds come on in the 

 autumn, do not for some time become objects of sus- 

 picion to the fowl. When surrounded by a good stand 

 of decoys, they are very deadly, and if set up, as they 

 often are, during a freeze, in air holes, wonderfully 

 good shooting may be had from them. 



They are very destructive to fowl, and the different 



