WILD-FOWLING IN AMERICA. 377 



absent on wild-fowling" excursions in the scow several days, and some- 

 times weeks.* 



The fowlers having arrived at their destination, and anchored 

 the scow in some quiet bay or remote space of water where the wild- 

 fowl resort, the battery is lowered down over the sides of the vessel 

 with very great caution, or it gets filled with water in the perform- 

 ance. On being safely launched, the floating wings which are 

 attached to the side of the machine are unfolded, and the guards or 

 wash-streaks turned up. Several pigs of iron-ballast are then placed 

 in the bottom, in order to sink the frame of the battery upon a level 

 with the surface of the water, the floating wings preventing its being 

 swamped in ordinary weather : a platform is then placed over the 

 ballast in the bottom of the battery, and a blanket, rug, or a little 

 straw being spread over the platform, the machine is ready for re- 

 ception of its solitary occupant ; who, after taking his guns aboard, 

 with ammunition and other requisites, casts off the rope by which it 

 is held to the scow, and the battery is then taken in tow by the flat- 

 bottomed yawls, to the spot chosen for the sport, where it is anchored 

 fore and aft. The stools and dummy decoy-ducks are then placed in 

 a judicious manner around the battery by those in the yawls. Some 

 fowlers are very fastidious as to the disposal and adjustment of the 

 decoys ; they should ride freely, so as not to come in contact with 

 each other. These dummies, to the number of one hundred and fifty 

 or two hundred, cover a large space of water ; they are placed prin- 

 cipally at the stern of the battery, and a few of the lightest on each of 

 the wings. Several wooden heads of decoys are permanently fixed on 

 pins on the deck of the battery : these are painted in imitation of 

 red-heads, black-heads, and a few bald pates. The outermost 

 dummy, or that anchored in the rear of the others farthest from the 

 group, is generally in imitation of an old canvas back, and is face- 

 tiously termed " the toler." Some of the dummies are made to 

 imitate the living fowl so admirably, that they appear like verita- 

 ble ducks, as they are kept in constant motion by the ripples of the 

 water. When the decoys are all anchored and the battery is fixed, 



* Mr. Klapp, speaking of the cabin of an American scow, says, " It was well 

 pitched, so as to be water-tight, and was entered by a small scuttle with a slide ; 

 here the fowler cooked, eat, slept, kept tally of his game, manufactured the heads 

 and necks of decoys, cut his gun- wads, spun his yarns, drank his grog or coffee, and 

 kept care outside from October until April during the severest season of the year." 

 Krider's Sporting Anecdotes ; by Kla/pp. 



3c 



