202 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



proper location, it should be utilized for concealment. Mr. Long 

 in his excellent and useful book on wild fowl shooting gives an 

 exhaustive account of how to shoot the Mallard at all seasons and 

 at all hours of the day ; we cannot do better here than give a few 

 of his ideas. He divides the shooting into morning shooting among 

 the wild-rice fields, and feeding grounds, which is carried on in a 

 boat with or without a retriever, two persons generally occupying 

 each craft, one to paddle and the bow man to attend to the shoot- 

 ing. Secondly, into midday shooting at the sloughs and ponds to 

 which the ducks resort after being driven from the feeding grounds. 

 In this shooting a retriever is invaluable, and facility in imitating 

 the call of the ducks is also essential ; perhaps two hunters station 

 themselves on opposite Sides of the slough or pond in the midst of 

 the woods, and as the ducks, scared from their feeding grounds, 

 drop into these places for rest and refuge, they instantly obey the 

 call. The hunter should leave all dead ducks to act as decoys and he 

 will do well to fix them as naturally in the water as possible. This 

 is accomplished by running a stick sharpened at both ends into the 

 bottom of the pond, if shallow enough to allow it, and inserting the 

 other point into the throat of the duck, or soft part at the base of 

 the lower mandible ; this will keep the head in a natural position, 

 and if possible another stick with perhaps a fork in the upper side 

 may also be placed in like manner beneath the tail ; these make de- 

 coys much superior to artificial ones. Thirdly comes evening shoot- 

 ing which is practiced in two ways, by following the same plan as 

 in morning shooting in the rice fields, or by standing near some of 

 the passes where the ducks are known to fly toward their roosting 

 and feeding grounds. Besides these methods, one quite common is 

 the shooting during the late fall, perhaps during the prevalence of 

 a snowstorm, in the corn-fields ; blinds should be built of corn- 

 stalks fixed naturally together, the hunter should dress in white or 

 some very light-colored garments and here also the dead birds 

 should be used as stools. As has been mentioned too, the shoot- 

 ing of Mallard and the various ducks with which they are found 

 associated, may be successfully practiced on the approach of winter 

 at the ice holes, which the birds keep open, and scores may some- 

 times be thus secured. The spring timber shooting is also very 

 attractive sport. 



