260 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
This preliminary explanation having been given, let us 
see what a day in a blind brings us. A party hay- 
ing taken their positions in the sneak-boxcs, with feet 
towards the decoys, each man loads his guns and impa- 
tiently waits for the appearance of the birds. If the day 
is both cold and windy, he may see them moving about 
in vast flocks, yet not hear a note from them, as their 
cries are drowned by the roar of the storm. But if the 
weather is comparatively mild, the honker, on seeing 
them, tunes up his vocal organs; he is soon answered by 
the leaders of the wanderers, and in another minute, 
perhaps, the latter may wheel about and come directly to 
the deceiver. 
“Here they come; lie low,” is the command of the 
veteran of the party. 
This is promptly obeyed, and everybody tries to force 
himself into the smallest compass, while his heart beats 
with excitement. The skein sees the callers on the beach 
and descends to them with rushing wings, and both soon 
commence chattering sociably to one another, and ex- 
pressing their delight at meeting. An anxious gunner 
partially lifts himself up at this moment, in order to get 
a peep and a shot at the new arrivals, but he is soon laid 
prostrate again by the order of the leader, who hisses to 
him to keep quiet until they get away from the “stools,” 
to prevent the latter from being shot. The geese leave 
the decoys in a short time, and then comes the com- 
mand: 
“Give them both barrels as they rise. Don’t shoot 
them on the ground.” 
In another second five men rise in their coffins like so 
many spectres and cock their guns. As soon as the geese 
see them they become terribly frightened and attempt to 
scramble away, but the steel tubes are too quick for 
them, and before they can get fairly on the wing ten dead 
and four wing-tipped birds fall to the ground or into the 
