346 FEATHEBED GAME 



gun, and, stepping out of his blind, to run 

 briskly away for a hundred yards just to shake 

 loose the icicles in his blood. About the time 

 he turns at the end of his breath he will see a 

 nice bunch of Whistlers just leaving his decoys. 

 This rule is invariable. Moral: Don't do it. 

 You may freeze to death, but stick by the blind. 

 I think that, given a good flock of decoys and a 

 good position, the rest lies more in the ability of 

 the sportsman to keep quiet and hidden than in 

 any unwillingness of the birds to decoy. The 

 Whistler is very quick to see a movement or 

 perceive any little matter out of the common. 

 When he does not like the appearance of things 

 he can not be induced to come anywhere near. 

 The gunner, too, must pay the strictest atten- 

 tion and shoot the instant his game is in the 

 right place, for once he is seen or treachery 

 suspected they go climbing into the sky like 

 rockets. 



A fair amount of sport may be had in this 

 way if the gunner can endure the cold, for it is 

 a pretty rugged kind of amusement. To get 

 some shooting on a winter's morning it is only 

 necessary to set a string of decoys off some 

 ledge of rocks where an open space of water 



