536 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



fowl on the ponds. One man (an outsider), defying public 

 sentiment, succeeded in driving most of the Ducks out of 

 one of the larger ponds in one day by pursuing them in a 

 boat and shooting at them. A law resulted, prohibiting this 

 pastime on the ponds of Martha's Vineyard. 



The Use of Live Decoys. 



The use of live decoys for attracting wild-fowl is a practice 

 which, in America, seems to have originated in Massachusetts. 

 It has become a Massachusetts institution which has many 

 stalwart defenders, and much money has been invested in 

 shooting stands where shooting over hve decoys is practiced. 

 Sir Charles Lyell (1842) speaks of a pond at East Weymouth 

 where he saw a single live Goose anchored in the water with 

 some wooden decoys. He here saw the industrious cobblers, 

 each sitting at his labor, stitching brogans for the southern 

 negroes, with his loaded gun lying by his side. The cobbler 

 worked an hour or two on his shoes, which brought but 

 twenty cents a pair, and then seizing his gun shot a Goose, 

 which brought, in the market, the price of several pairs of 

 brogans.^ 



Shooting over live decoys has come into general use. It 

 has spread over a considerable part of the Atlantic coast, and 

 unless checked by law it is destined to extend over the entire 

 country. As the game became less plentiful, and prices rose, 

 elaborate blinds were built, larger numbers of stool birds 

 were used and quarters were provided in the blinds where 

 several cobblers could work. The shooting stand became a 

 veritable fort, — each loophole supplied with its gun, and 

 all screened and hidden by trees or bushes, weeds and brush, 

 so placed as to disguise its purpose and construction. The 

 men ate, slept, lived and worked in it during the shooting 

 season. In some cases one man was kept busy much of his 

 time watching and tending the birds, liberating and calling in 

 the decoys, and in general caretaking. Finally, shoe ma- 

 chinery took away the cobbler's occupation, and since then a 



' Lyell, Sir Charles: Travels in the United States; Second Visit, 1849, Vol. 1, p. 99. 



