560 FOREST, FIELD, AND PRAIRIE. 



BLINDS; DECOYS; CALLS; AND OTHER DEVICES. 



Blinds for Wild Fowl. — If the blind is built of small branches 

 or bushes, they should be stuck up in the ground close together, 

 smaller twigs entwined among them, and bunches of grass, weeds, 

 rice, or flags scattered judiciously over and amongst them, to close 

 all open or thin places. If very large bushy branches are used, 

 they may be laid down crossing each other, with the tops turned 

 outwards. The blind should never be built higher than the shoul- 

 ders of the shooter when in an erect position. 



In blue-bill shooting upon the edges of ploughed prairies and 

 cornfields, a good blind may be made by turning your boat upon 

 its edge, and bracing it in that position by a stake or oar. 



In the winter when the ground is covered with snow, a blind 

 made of bleached cotton cloth fastened to stakes stuck in the 

 ground, affords a good concealment, and cannot be easily distin- 

 guished from the surrounding snow. A white covering should 

 be worn over the cap or hat. 



The Sneak Box. — The box in which the shoot'er lies should be 

 made of pine, sides and bottom one inch, and ends two inches thick, 

 and of proportions adapted to the size of the person to occupy it, 

 six feet long, two feet wide, and thirteen inches deep, being proper 

 for an ordinary sized man. Along each side and across the ends, 

 one inch below the top edge of the box, two-by-four-inch pine 

 timbers are fastened, framed together at equal heights, and extend- 

 ing on all sides, two and a half feet from the box. This frame 

 should be slanted off on top fully an inch towards the ends to give 

 a pitch to the deck, and on the under side should also be reduced 

 in the same manner to make it as light as possible for handling. 

 The frame is next covered with a pine platform a half inch thick, 

 which is further strengthened by the addition of a brace reaching 

 from the centre of the box on each side. This platform is bounded 

 on three sides by hinged wings of cotton cloth, which are two feet 

 wide, fastened to a pine frame work, and so constructed as to ad- 

 mit of being folded back upon the platform when not in use ; at 

 the fourth side or head of the sneak, the wing, instead of being 

 made of cloth, is partly composed of two half-inch pine boards, 

 eight inches wide, hinged together and extending the width of the 



