SEA-DUCK SHOOTING 163 



In shooting over decoys the start is made quite early 

 in the morning, often long before daylight. The 

 sportsman, accompanied by a local gunner or bay-man, 

 sails away in the dark to the point selected for his 

 ambush. Many decoys (each attached by a long string 

 to a weight, often a half brick or scrap of iron) are 

 stowed away in the boat. These wooden counterfeits 

 are painted to represent the varieties which frequent 

 the bay — canvas-backs, red-heads, scaups or black- 

 heads, ruddy-ducks, widgeons, buffle-heads and others, 

 and often mergansers. A few geese and brant decoys 

 are in the outfit to be used to allure the passing geese 

 or brant. When the objects of pursuit are geese or 

 brant only, a larger flock of these decoys is carried, 

 and often a lot of live birds, both ducks and geese, are 

 used as decoys. 



It is always a cold and often a stormy voyage down 

 the bay, and the heaviest coat and a rain-coat over 

 all will be found necessary to keep out the wind and 

 cold. As the boat proceeds flocks of water-fowl may 

 be heard arising from the water or passing overhead on 

 rushing, whistling wings. When the place selected for 

 a blind (usually a point or bar where the ducks are 

 feeding) is reached, the blind is hastily constructed, 

 provided it has not been made before, and the decoys 

 are set out on the water, within easy range of the guns. 

 The best blind is a box sunk in the sand or mud, 

 with some seaweed or sedge, or whatever is near, scat- 

 tered about, and even over the sportsman after he has 

 extended himself in the box. Blinds are often made of 

 seaweeds, grass, rushes, reeds, and bushes, and when 

 they are so erected above the ground, it is well to 



