CONSERVATION OF GAME BIRDS. 537 



change has occurred in stand shooting. As the birds became 

 fewer and harder to obtain, sportsmen, perceiving the pos- 

 silnhties of these stands and decoys, began to invest their 

 money in them, until now many are in the hands of wealthy 

 or well-to-do sportsmen. 



In some of these stands the keepers use electric signals to 

 call the gunners from bed or board to the outer walls. In 

 some cases more than a hundred live Geese or Duck decoys 

 are used, some of which are trained to fly out over the lake, 

 and so call the wild birds down and toll them in. The wild 

 birds seem to lose most of their natural caution under such 

 circumstances, and swim boldly up to the stand, even coming 

 out upon the shore, at times, almost under its walls. When 

 the greatest number of birds can be killed at one shot, all 

 the gunners make ready and fire at the word of command. 



In some stands a second volley is given the birds as they 

 rise. In most of the stands the rule is to shoot only at the 

 sitting birds. If the gunners succeed in killing the adult birds, 

 the young, though frightened at the first discharge, may return 

 again to the place where the bodies of their parents are still 

 lying on the water, and give the sportsmen a chance for another 

 volley. It sometimes happens that the entire flock is taken 

 in this way. Huntington tells of watching a gunner with live 

 decoys who killed all but one of a small flock of Geese, and 

 finally got that one when it returned to investigate. Usually 

 this stand shooting was a form of market hunting. The plan 

 and purpose of the gunners seemed to be to kill as many birds 

 as possible. There was an intense rivalry between the stands 

 at the different ponds, each seeking to outdo the other. In most 

 of them, all the birds that could be marketed were sold, and if 

 one of the owners wished to have a bird that he had shot, he 

 paid for it. The game sold usually went toward paying the 

 expenses of up-keep. Since the above was written the sale 

 of wild-fowl has been prohibited by law in Massachusetts. 



An account of this kind of decoying at Silver Lake was 

 published some years ago in Forest and Stream, by one of 

 the participants, wherein it was stated that sixty-eight Geese 

 were killed at one stand in twelve hours. Nothing is said 



