294 WILD FOWL SBOOriNG. 



going ten, even fifteen miles to feed, passing over tlie 

 choicest corn, buckwheat, stubble and plowed ground, 

 and then alight and feed in a spot not nearly as rich as 

 safe or as protected as many of those passed over. 



The most successful manner, indeed the only way -to 

 shoot them, after they leave the river, is to shoot them 

 over decoys, using such profile decoys as I have de- 

 scribed. The hunter firing from pits dug in the 

 ground. The pits are usually dug before the day of 

 shooting. The hunter notes where the geese have 

 been coming in to feed, and there he digs a round hole, 

 sufficiently deep, that when on his knees (an unusual 

 position for most hunters), by elevating his head a 

 little, he can peep over the edge of the hole. ^The 

 diameter of the pit should be large enough to allow him 

 to turn easily and quickly, that he may shoot from any 

 direction without inconvenience. The dirt thrown 

 out is carefully smashed or hid with grass ; the edges 

 of the blind sprinkled with a little hay and an occasional 

 corn stalk, so that everything will look natural. He 

 then places out his decoys, scattered all around him, 

 forming a circle about thirty yards in diameter. 

 He being in his pit in the centre, great care is taken 

 that the decoys shall be placed so that the broad side 

 of the profile will show plainly from any direction tlie 

 geese may come. 



Less than four years ago my brother George and my- 

 self spent two days with these honkers, near the Platte 

 river. One cold November morning, almost in Decefii- 

 ber, found us at break of day, impatiently waiting the 

 flight, secreted in -^he recesses of an old fence, 

 thoroughly hidden from sight by great tumbling weeds, 

 which the Northwest wind drove upon us. The whis- 



