296 
rubber hose with a large bulb, the latter 
‘being held in my left hand, underneath 
the gun as I grasped the barrels. I would 
first focus the camera and set the shutter, 
then get into my hiding place, and when 
the ducks decoyed to my live mallard 
decoys I would shoot the gun and squeeze 
the bulb simultaneously, getting a duck 
and a photograph at one and the same 
time! 
RECREATION 
chillisome in the back yard, so I cut short 
my experimenting and turned to the more 
cheerful prospect of a good morning’s 
shooting. A conference by telephone was 
most satisfying, and I started out that 
evening to take the train to the lake, 43 
miles from St. Louis, with the comforting 
knowledge that the ducks were on the 
ground and seemingly content to stay 
for awhile. 

No. 8—A WIDGEON DRAKE AND A PAIR OF PINTAILS DECOYING 
What seemed easy in theory turned out in 
practice, however, to be decidedly difficult. 
When I got ‘Ghome’ ‘with}my additional 
photographic equipment and had the wires 
all strung, I found that objects of the size 
of a duck when viewed at forty yards 
through the ground-glass of the camera 
were hardly discernible. At what I esti- 
mated to be thirty yards, a hat was just 
nicely discernible on the ground-glass by 
the aid of a reading-glass—that is to say, I 
could see a little black spot against the 
sky, but the species could not be deter- 
mined through the camera. This was cer- 
tainly a setback. 
It was now midafternoon and some 
For once I had made an accurate fore- 
cast of the weather. The morning broke 
clear, and I knew that ere seven of the 
clock it would be moderately fair, though 
not too fine a day for duck-shooting. I 
was in the timber at dawn, and by the time 
the ducks began to come in I had the camera 
set up and was ready in my blind by a 
pond-hole that I knew would surely be a 
popular one early in the day. But I had 
grave fears for the success of the photo- 
graphs—the light in the timber would be 
bad even at midday. At an early hour the 
gun certainly had all the best of the camera. 
It was so dark I could see nothing on the 
eround-glass, and I had to focus the 
