472 
FOREST AND STREAM 
October, 1921 
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COLD SPRING CAMPS 
Forest and Averill Lakes 
ONLY MAINE CAMPS IN VERMONT 
Twentieth Season 
CATCH THEM WITH A FLY 
Trout and Salmon 
ALL THROUGH SEPTEMBER 
Partridge Shooting all October 
Trout, Salmon, Lakers, Aureolas, Bass, 
Pickerel, Boating. Bathing, Tramping 
Five lakes, miles of streams anti trails. Main camp, 
twelve cabins. Open fires. A table we are proud of. 
Good old guides if desired. Famous mineral springs. 
Accessible to Boston and New York by rail or motor. 
Reliable references near you. 75 miles from White 
Mountains, 20 miles from Colebrook, N. H. No 
mosquitoes; no black flies and no hay fever. Garage. 
Open to October 15. 
H. A. QUIMBY, Mgr., Averill, Vt. 
ADIRONDACK 
Fisherman, hunter, or pleasure-seeker, we are ready 
for you at Sunset Inn, on the largest lake in the 
Mountains. Here game abounds ami nature reigns 
supreme. Small camps; fireplace; lounging room and 
all improvements. Write for particulars. 
BEEBE & ASHTON 
CRANBERRY LAKE NEW YORK 
DEER BEAR BIRDS 
Near the Canadian border. New Camps; good eats; 
good hunting; and the best of a good time. A free 
hunting license if you stay a week with guide and 
don’t get a shot at deer. Can take care of a few 
more parties who wish to be alone. 
Open October 1st to December 1st 
For information and rates write 
Indian Stream Camps, Pittsburg, N.H. 
RIVERSIDE RANCH 
CECIL J. HUNTINGTON 
Cody, Wyoming 
Fine Trout Fishing on Ranch. Yellowstone 
Park, Jackson’s Hole, Bridget Lake, and Two 
Ocean Pass by pack train. Big Game Hunt- 
ing and Big Heads our specialty. 
SPEND YOUR VACATIONS IN 
WONDERFUL WYOMING 
HUNTING — - FISHING 
Request Illustrated Booklet 
COMMISSIONER IMMIGRATION 
Capitol Building, Cheyenne, Wyoming 
Burlington Hotel 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
380 ROOMS 
$2.50 to $4.00 European 
$5.00 to $7.00 American 
Out of business district, only five 
minutes walk to White House, 
Theatres and Stores. 
HOMELIKE CLEAN SAFE 
Fall Hunting 
IN 
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VACATIONLAND 
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BIG GAME and BIRDS 
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Literature and information on request to 
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Passenger Traffic Department 
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Maine Central Railroad, Portland, Maine 
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as that is a system of duck shooting that 
inevitably furnishes the best results all 
around. With a crowd gunning together 
there is always a surplus to take care of 
the decoys and to gather dead birds and 
cripples while the others are watching 
for new flocks to come in. It prevents 
being surprised with an unlooked-for 
flock of ducks. 
The decoys were hardly arranged be- 
fore a flock of black-duck circled over 
the meadows, coming in from the west 
where there was some heavy shooting 
going on. Crouching down in the boats, 
as near flat in the cock-pits as the space 
would allow and drawing the reeds well 
over us we waited while Howard called 
them with his wooden “quacker.” The 
bunch decoyed down to the stools, but 
before they made it near enough for a 
good shot they swung away and over to 
the decoys of our neighbors on the op- 
posite side of the island where they were 
shot at and a pair of doubles brought 
down as we could plainly see. This flock 
opened the day's gunning. 
They were scarcely away from the 
islands when I looked through the reeds 
at the side of the blind and made tout a 
large flock swinging about the point of 
reeds and coming up the coast. When 
we came to the blind Howard had an- 
chored the launch several hundred yards 
out from the shore so as to crowd the 
flocks, either coming down the thorough- 
fare or up the coast of the island, in 
nearer to the blind. This is a trick that 
all good baymen use and will result in 
better chances than by leaving the bay 
open thus giving the wild birds a chance 
to fly far out. 
The party on the opposite side of the 
channel had anchored their launch beyond 
ours and like us had come in to the 
island in their ducking-boats. It was a 
pretty sight in the early morning to see 
the gunners in single file paddling their 
sneak-boxes to the reedy shore with 
laughter and high hopes of the day’s 
sport. 
That morning I learned something 
about decoying the sea ducks into the 
stools that I had not known before : A 
large flock of blue bills came humming 
down the channel, between the garvey 
and the stools, but too far for a good shot. 
The flock would unquestionably have 
passed us by in spite of all the calling we 
could do on the quackers, but Howard 
raised up in the boat and waving his cap 
shouted loudly to the flock. The ducks 
swung in sharply and decoyed nicely to 
the stools. The trick is good for those 
ducks which are at a good distance out 
and passing by as it attracts their atten- 
tion to the decoys. 
'T'OWARD nine o’clock in the morn- 
ing the flight started in earnest. 
Heavy gunning commenced down the 
coast and the flocks rounded the reedy 
point in close succession. I have had 
some good gunning for waterfowl in 
my time, but for an hour there in that 
blind I never saw the shooting equaled. 
One flock after another swung up the 
shore line and came into the stools with 
the added encouragement of Howard’s 
wooden caller. As they came abreast of 
the first boat the gunner in it would take 
his chances, then the next man and so on 
until the swirling mass of ducks was out 
of range. 
After leaving our stools the ducks that 
came up the bay would swing over past 
the end of the opposite island across the 
channel, where the other gunners were 
located, and in a good many cases after 
being shot at would again wheel back by 
our stand either giving us a high over- 
head chance at the entire flock or a pair 
of ducks, sometimes a hare single would 
come back to the decoys under the seduc- 
ing calls of the wooden quacker. One 
man was kept busy calling while the 
others were ready for the incoming 
ducks. It was the fastest sport that I 
have ever taken part in. 
Howard was kept busy most of the time 
chasing down cripples or gathering and 
keeping the decoys in place. This work 
is one of the most important parts of 
duck shooting on the bay. It is no tame 
sport to gather for a party of gunners 
when the flights are strong. I have seen 
Howard chasing as many as half a dozen 
cripples at one time ; the other bayman 
guiding him across the bay and helping 
with the work as their ducks also came 
by our blind with the strong current 
taking the dead birds as well as the crip- 
ples out into the sea. 
The sea ducks dive as soon as winged 
and come up at a good distance from the 
shore. The sneak boat is paddled or 
rowed out from the shore in the direction 
of the cripples and the minute they show 
above water the gunner shoots the 
wounded birds. By aiming high the best 
part of the load will get a cripple that is 
at the ordinary range. 
By noon we had our limit of ducks 
piled in the boats and were eating lunch 
in the blind. The sun was warm and 
pleasant and from down the island only 
an occasional report signified the pres- 
ence of the other gunners of the morn- 
ing. A few scattered flocks were to be 
seen out in the bay, but the long lines of 
waterfowl that we had seen everywhere j 
about the island in the morning when we ! 
first unloaded from the garvey were gone. 
The peculiar whine of wings that had 
been heard all the morning as the acres 
of ducks flushed before the launches of 
the oyster men, going to their work in 
the beds out in the inlet and creeks in 
front of the island, were no longer to be 
heard — the ducks had gone out to sea. 
Had the weather been stormy and a high 
surf running there would have still been 
plenty of ducks scattered around in the 
meadows back of us and in the channels 
between the islands, but with the calm 
weather of a beautiful autumn day the 
farther reaches of the sea had attracted 
them away from the gunning stands. 
As we were fixing up our gear pre- 
paratory to leaving there came the whistle 
of a single yellow-leg from across the 
channel, and Howard began calling it. 1 
Out of the autumn haze it came, wheeling 
on eccentric wing and swung out over 
the decoys. There was a splatter of No. 
8 shot and a barrage opened from the 
blinds, still the plover faded into the dis- 
tance. We were not sorry for we had 
done well and were content to call it a 
In Writing to Advertisers mention Forest and Stream. It will identify you. 
