56o FOREST, FIELD, AND PRAIRIE. 



BLINDS ; DECOYS ; CALLS ; AND OTHER DEVICES. 

 The Sink Box or Battery.— 'V\\e. sink box is about six feet 

 three inches long, one foot two inches deep, two feet wide at 

 the top, one foot eight inches at the bottom. To this box is fastened 

 a platform about twelve feet long and seven feet wide, and to this 

 platform is fastened a frame covered v«th muslin, as follows : 

 Width at head, nine inches ; width at sides, two feet. This box is 

 carried to the shooting grounds by placing it on a boat, and is then 

 anchored at head and foot, head toward the wind. The shooter 

 then places his decoys at both sides and strings them toward the 

 foot, so that the decoys will form a V shape ; but place most of your 

 decoys on the left, so that the ducks will come on your left, as this 

 is the easiest shooting. After this is done the shooter gets into the 

 box and places weights in it, so that it will be sunk even to the 

 water. The shooter then lies down in the box with his face to the 

 leeward, so that he can see every dart made and thus have an easy 

 shot. Where ducks are plenty this is a most destructive contrivance, 

 as the ducks can see nothing until they get over the decoys, and 

 then it is too late, for at this moment the shooter rises up and pours 

 in his deadly fire. 



Blinds. — A blind is a concealment. Blinds are contrived in a 

 dozen different ways to suit varying exigencies. Properly, they are 

 imitations of nature, or such close resemblances to natural objects 

 that the birds to be decoyed are wholly unsuspicious of them. If a 

 man is hunting along the margin of a river which is lined with 

 rushes, he bends the rushes over the boat and hides beneath them, 

 taking care that his garments shall be of the same color as surround- 

 ing objects. If he is among willows on shore or by the river-side, 

 he partly lops off the branches and lets them hang over him. If he 

 is by the sea-shore, where the waves pile up the kelp and algae, he 

 makes a suitable pile of his own and uses it for a blind. If logs and 

 drift-wood line the banks of the shore or margin of a stream, a 

 canoe or boat turned over looks like a log and affords a blind. If 

 birds are to be hunted in fields or near cover, a shock of com or 

 pile of brush answers the best purpose. If in mid-winter, when 

 snow is on the ground, or ice moving in the rivers, blocks of ice set 

 up, or bleached cotton cloth made fast to stakes driven into the 

 ground, make an effectual concealment, and can scarcely be dis- 



