OH, SHOOT! 



Pamlico Sound marks, roughly, the goose's 

 southern limit. Here each wary old gander 

 pilots his family; here he and his mate watch 

 their young folks make social engagements 

 for the following season. 



There is no marsh or pond shooting, for 

 the wild fowl frequent the shallow waters of 

 the sound and it is necessary to hunt from 

 rolling blinds, stake blinds, or batteries. The 

 rolling blind I have described it is used only 

 on cold, drizzly days in the late season when 

 the geese have chilblains and gather on the 

 dry bars to compare frost bites. A stake 

 blind resembles a pulpit raised upon four 

 posts, and is useful mainly in decoying inex- 

 perienced Northern hunters. Green sports- 

 men stool well to stake blinds, for they are 

 comfortable, but a wise gunner shies at them 

 as does a gander. He knows that the real 

 thing is a battery. 



This latter device may be described as a sort 

 of coffin, but lacking in the creature comforts of 

 a casket. It is a narrow, water-tight box with 

 a flush deck about two feet wide, to three 

 sides of which are hinged large folding wings of 

 cloth or sacking stretched upon a light wooden 

 framework. It is painted an inconspicuous 



18 



