348 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



where you feal they will give you the best opportunity 

 to shoot. 



DECOYS The reader has noticed the partiality I have- 

 shown in this book toward decoys. In doing so I have 

 no apology to offer, for it has been nay constant aim 

 and desire to disclose to you the secrets of the art of 

 hunting wild fowl successfully, as constant practice, 

 unlimited opportunities, and over twenty years' experi- 

 ence has demonstrated to me ; and I can confidently 

 say there is no other one thing that goes so far toward 

 making an expert duck shooter, as a full knowledge 

 and the proper use of decoys. When a boy, like all 

 thoughtless urchins, my success in duck-shooting de- 

 pended on luck. Decoys at that time seemed like 

 harmless blocks of wood, created for the purpose of ex- 

 ercising my patience, when they became tangled to- 

 gether (which it seemed tome they always did). Then 

 to think of picking them out of the ice cold water. 

 Ugh! This thought alone was sufficient to drive cold 

 chills down my back, and I studiously avoided their 

 use. As later years added experience to my hunting- 

 education, the follies and errors of my youth (in this 

 respect) were fully apparent, and I have tried to remedy 

 them ; and now I never go duck-shooting without de- 

 coys, and every expert in wild fowl shooting will bear 

 me out when I say they are one of the absolute neces- 

 sities of a hunting outfit. Of course, at times, they are 

 in the way, and inconvenient, an acknowledged nuis- 

 ance ; but for all this trouble the fruits of our labor are 

 received when we see the decoys floating idly in the 

 still water, so quiet, so inactive, with mallards, pin- 

 tails, red-heads, and all the shoal water ducks quacking 

 out greetings to them, and with lightning swish drop- 



