HOW TO SHOOT WILD GAME. 



WATER-FOWL. 



Care must be taken not to fire too soon, distance being very decept- 

 ive on water, many good aims are made worthless through mis- 

 calculation. The scent of the water-fowl is exceedingly keen 

 and to get within range it is better to keep to the leeward, than to 

 bear directly down upon them. 



Ducks are hunted with decoys in the early spring and fall. Wild 

 geese are shot from behind screens on the margins of lakes and 

 rivers. The hunters decoy them by imitating their cries. Tame 

 geese may also be used as decoys. 



Professionals sometimes lure ducks right up to the shore, where 

 they can literally butcher them at their leisure. It is done by hav- 

 ing on hand a red blanket, or scarf, or shirt, which is shaken in the 

 sedge near the water, and if there are any ducks near they will 

 swim right toward it, so close up that their breasts will touch the 

 shore. It seems to fascinate them. When they are close up, a man 

 may rise up and cock his gun without scaring them away; only 

 keep the red object moving all the time. They will swim around in 

 a circle, and the gunner, watching his chance, lets drive when he 

 has a lot of them in range, raking in the greater part of the flock. 

 This is commonly called playing them in. As many as forty have 

 been killed in that way at one shot with both barrels. Those not 

 shot will fly away a little distance, but in half an hour or so they 

 can be played in the same way, and so on until the flock is about 

 exterminated. Young birds are especially subject to be fascinated 

 in this way, and often they can be toled from a distance of one hun- 

 dred yards to the shore. A reddish colored dog, trained to run 

 backward and forward along the beach, is excellent to attract them. 

 Color alone will not atract them, but motion with it will. The idea is 

 supposed to have come from the foxes. Old hunters tell of hav- 

 ing seen a fox tole in a flock of ducks by running up and down the 



