862 With Rod and Gun in New England 



which means that like the stockade fence, it is shielded from view by be- 

 ing covered with pine boughs. 



A person unaccustomed to the locality might row a boat along the 

 shore of the pond, fifty feet from the stand, and be wholly unaware of its 

 existence, so cunningly have all the surroundings been taken into consid- 

 eration and made to assist in the deception. 



Now for the modus operandi employed to decoy the fowl, in which the 

 ingenuity of man circumvents the natural shyness and sagacity of the birds, 

 and they are lured on to meet their Waterloo; for it is conceded that of all 

 the feathered tribe, the cutest and most wary is the black duck. Fright- 

 ened at the slightest noise, taking quick flight at any moving object, with 

 all senses constantly on the qui vive, it requires cunning, invention, and an 

 intimate knowledge of their characteristics to decoy them within shooting 

 distance. 



Some sixty or seventy wooden decoys, or " blocks," as they are locally 

 termed, are anchored about two gunshots from the beach, arranged in tri- 

 angles, made by nailing three laths together, and nailing a decoy to each 

 point ; thus preventing them from swinging together, or assuming unnatural 

 positions, by the action of the wind. 



A stake is driven down in the pond, and a line run under water, 

 through a pulley on the stake to the shore, and under the stockade fence. 



To this line is fastened a bunch of the wooden decoys, which may be 

 pulled in or out, after the manner of the "breeches buoy" used in the life- 

 saving service. 



A little less than gunshot from the shore are wooden "stoppers," or 

 cork floats, fifty feet apart, and extending the length of the beach. This 

 defines the shooting distance or "dead line," anywhere inside of which a 

 duck is within killing distance. Thus, nothing is left to guess-work, but 

 everything is worked out to a mathematical certainty. 



Within two feet of the beach, about ten feet apart and running the 

 length of the shore, are anchored the live decoy ducks, a perfect picket 

 line, and they swim and quack, quack and swim, flutter and quack night 

 and day. Inside the stockade fence, arranged along its entire length, except 

 a space here and there to stand in, slatted pens are built, where fifty or more 

 live ducks are kept to be used as decoys or " flyers." 



Long before daybreak the sonorous quack, quack, from fifty throats 

 breaks the stillness, and a wild duck must be utterly devoid of gregarian 

 instinct that would not be filled with an overwhelming desire to fraternize 

 with such a harmonious family. 



Everybody is up and dressed a full hour before daylight and the 

 utmost silence is preserved, for we believe that ducks have come in during 

 the night and are in the vicinity of the "blocks." All the windows are 



