GOOSE-DECOYS. 



722 Field Sports in Minnesota. 



of the gun at the moment of discharge. Most sportsmen flinch 

 at that supreme moment, and unless the habit is entirely overcome, 

 they cannot expect ever to become good wing shots. The "choke- 

 boring" of guns, in limited use long ago, has only very recently 

 come into favor and rather more general use. Upon the pass or 



elsewhere, it adds at least one- 

 fourth more distance to the kill- 

 ing range of the gun. This is 

 done by the effect it has upon 

 the "pattern" made by the shot, 

 causing the gun to throw a 

 greater number of shot pellets 

 into a given circle than can be 

 done by the cylinder or straight 

 bore. One barrel of the duck- 

 hunter's gun should surely be 

 bored in this way. 



Kandiyohi was once famous 

 for its black- duck flights; but of late they seem to have abandoned 

 it, and more mallards, red-heads, and canvas-backs are found here. 

 Vallisneria, often miscalled wild celery (I say miscalled, because it 

 bears no resemblance in taste to" the common celery), is beginning 

 to grow thickly in places, in addition to the wild rice, and may 

 account for this fact. 



It was in this vicinity that the pair of canvas-backs were killed 

 by that veteran sportsman, General H. H. Sibley, — well known to 

 the readers of the old " Spirit of the Times " under the nom de plume 

 of " Hal-a-Dakotah," — and by him sent to his friend "Frank 

 Forrester," thereby settling a controversy between the two gentle- 

 men, and proving conclusively — what Forrester had before denied 

 — that the true Vallisneria is found away from the sea- coast. 



To have anything like sport in the pursuit of the common wild 

 goose ( Bernicla Canadensis), the ordinary methods of hunting 

 water-fowl hardly answer here ; besides, the lakes they frequent are 

 not large enough to justify the use of the bay-shooting tactics from 

 sink-boats, and from blinds near the water. These birds are exceed- 

 ingly wary when upon the fields, and are very seldom bagged by 

 stalking. In their watchfulness they have but one rival, and he an 



