BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 147 



Live decoy-ducks are used principally against 

 members of their own species which otherwise 

 are exceedingly difficult to secure on open water. 

 They are seldom deceived by artificial decoys. 

 Of late years, however, it has become a practice 

 in certain States to bait small shallow ponds and 

 sloughs for black duck and mallard, a trick 

 which the wary birds cannot penetrate. Corn is 

 scattered freely over the bottom and, when the 

 ducks have grown accustomed to congregating 

 there to feed, they are shot from blinds as they 

 arrive. 



Live birds are employed almost entirely to as- 

 sure the ducks that the way is clear, and so suc- 

 cessful has this method of slaughter proved that 

 it has been followed by a rapid decrease in the 

 black duck and mallard population. Bags of 

 fifty and sixty birds to the gun are not uncommon 

 on baited pools. Unless it is soon replaced by 

 a more sportsmanlike system of shooting, there 

 will be very few ducks to try it on in the near 

 future. 



Another method much in vogue a generation 

 ago and still somewhat used for taking ducks is 

 that employed on a few inland lakes of the 

 Middle West. A small body of water is selected 

 for the purpose, one containing a quantity of 

 natural food which has drawn thither from year 

 to year great hordes of ducks. A post is driven 

 into the mud at the center of the lake and from it, 



