282 



WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



this fellow be ? Perhaps lie had sat upon a cake of 

 ice floating down the Delaware on that historic morning 

 when Washington crossed in the dim twilight, -per- 

 haps at an earlier era in our country's infancy he arose 

 in alarm from a sand-bar in the Mississippi as De Soto, 

 on his voyage of discovery, beheld for the first time 

 with the eyes of a white man that broad-flowing majestic 

 stream. I have always had a great respect for old age, 

 and have ever felt satisfied that that goose was the 

 oldest and toughest animated thing I ever saw. 



The different ways of hunting geese are entirely de- 

 pendent on the locality where they are hunted. The 

 manner of hunting them on the Mississippi could not be 

 adopted in Nebraska or Kansas. On the other hand, the 

 way they are hunted in those States could not be 

 followed advantageously on the Mississippi river. 

 They are shot on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers 

 from sand bars, again on the Mississippi from scull- 

 boats. This cannot be done on the Missouri because of 

 the swift current. But the most successful manner of 

 shooting is that practiced in Nebraska and Dakota, 

 namely, over decoys. The decoys are made of tin, iron 

 or wood, still better, the thin hard seating used in chairs. 

 They should be light, portable, and taking up the 

 smallest space possible, and made to fold. They should 

 always be made " profile," the body one piece, then the 

 neck fastened to it by rivets, then an iron rod extend- 

 ing down from the body about eighteen inches, sharp- 

 ened at the end, so it c;vn be pushed into the ground. 

 The neck folds close to the body, as does this iron rod, 

 when not in service, and they take up but little room 

 in wagon or boat. They should be painted with live 

 colors, the crescent shape of white underneath the head, 



