138 ON THE WING. 



sportsmen locate themselves before daylight, and then 

 take the ducks as they start out. 



Many wild ducks, and geese also, are killed in the 

 ponds and lakes of nearly all the Northern States, on 

 their passages to the North and South. In the fall 

 season, however, the harvest is far the greatest, and 

 the arrangements of the sportsmen are generally so 

 well-contrived and carried out, that but few ducks or 

 geese get away when once they come within range 

 of the sportsman's gun. 



The manner of shooting ducks or geese where the 

 pond is large and the game abundant, is as follows : 



On the edge of a lake or pond, and in the most 

 secluded part, where the ducks or geese would natu- 

 rally come without fear of being molested, and where 

 the bushes and trees make a good cover, sportsmen 

 build a small house, large enough to accommodate 

 half a dozen inmates. The roof of this house they 

 usually cover with brush and evergreens, in such 

 a manner that the building cannot be noticed by the 

 wild fowl, either in flying over or in sailing about the 

 lake or pond. Here the hunters often live for two or 

 three months at a time. 



A few feet from this building, they erect a kind of 

 wall or blind, made of brush, small pine trees and un- 

 derwood, by running poles from one tree to another 

 horizontally, and then standing and fastening some 

 small trees against the poles, and filling in the chinks 

 between with small brush ; all this, without giving to 

 the wall a heavy appearance. 



This blind is made a little higher than the heads of 



