THE CANADA GOOSE. 65 
lasted with stones until the platform merely floats upon 
the surface of the water; this flat surface is then lightly 
covered with sedge, so that at a very short distance 
nothing but a small quantity of apparently floating weed 
is discernible.” 
Into this destructive machine, having arranged his 
carved and painted wooden decoys, or “ stools,” around 
it, the gunner descends with his guns, and lying flat on 
his back, awaits, from before the first glimmer of dawn, 
the arrival of the Geese on their feeding grounds, which 
he butchers by scores or even hundreds, while they are 
floating here and there feeding unsuspiciously. When 
it is considered that on every shoal on which fowl can 
feed throughout the Long Island waters, two or three of 
these murderous contrivances are anchored, so that the 
fowl can never feed in quiet—and at no other period 
are fowl so jealous of disturbance as while feeding— 
and that they are, moreover, constantly harassed at the 
same delicate period by being shot at from sailing-boats, 
running down among them before the wind, before they 
are aware, it is no wonder that they should rise high 
into the air, and deserting these inhospitable purlieus, 
seek safer places, where, if they be shot at fiercely, and 
compelled to run the gauntlet of innumerable fires, as 
they fly to and fro from beach to feeding-ground, and 
from feeding-ground to beach, they are at least allowed 
to feed in peace and without molestation. 
The mode practiced in the Jersey waters is this, and 
