bird shooting is the whistling or calling. Experience 

 is the only teacher, and besides, a man must be 

 especially gifted to acquire the art. Men who are 

 bom and bred near the snipe marshes become 

 adepts at calling, and there is no feat in bird shoot- 

 ing more difficult than whistling a wary, black-bellied 

 plover down from the blue sky. 



DECOYS 



All the beach bird clan decoy readily. Clam 

 shells, or lumps of mud on sticks will answer some- 

 times for a stool in out-of-the-way localities. The 

 best decoys, however, are none too good, and 

 v«^ these can be bought in any reliable sporting store. 

 ^■T7iim^0i':. Decoys of tin can be used, that are folding, and 

 '"^[^'^^ pack snugly in a small box. They are very handy, 

 ''^"■^p? ^^*^ serve their purpose well. In snipe shooting 

 ^^-— "^^ the stool should be placed up wind from, and not 

 ^^JP-?too close to the blind. 



X ^ -^j It is a good plan for the hunter to supply him- 



^^'—'^^ self with a number of thin sticks before the hunt, 

 ^' L*«v as the dead birds can be used as decoys by insert- 

 ing one end of the stick under the head, and push- 

 ing the other end into the mud. This is not really 

 necessary, however, unless the stool is small. About 

 20 decoys make a good stool ; the number depend- 

 ing largely on the trouble the hunter wishes to take. 



