1875 . 
35 
destructive fire. On going down the bay there are holes 
made in the ice to resemble these natural openings, 
close to some favorite ground. tVithin gun-shot of 
these the sportsman lies concealed In this way thou- 
sands of canvas-backs are killed every winter. That 
you may form some idea of how many ducks are killed 
at a time in some of these air holes, 1 have taken the fol- 
lowing from Wilson: “A Mr. Hill, who lives near 
James river at a place called Herring Creek, informs 
me that on a severe winter day he and another person 
broke a hole in the ice about twenty by forty feet im- 
mediately over a shoal of grass and took their stand on 
the shore in a hut of brush, each having three guns well 
loaded with large shot. The ducks which were flying 
up and down the river in great extremity soon crowded 
to this place so that the whole open space was not only 
crowded with them but vast numbers stood on the ice 
around it. They had three rounds, firing both at once, 
and picked up eighty-eight canvas-backs and might have 
collected more had they been able to get to the ex- 
tremity of the ice after the wounded ones ’’ 
Havre de Grace is one of the most noted bays on the 
Chesapeake for red-heads, canvas-backs and other spe- 
cies common to these waters. It is perhaps superfluous 
to mention that this place is situated on the banks of the 
Susquehanna river, on the line of the Philadelphia and 
Baltimore Railroad, and about forty miles north of the 
city of Baltimore. This I selected as the point of de- 
parture for Chesapeake sport. On arriving from Balti- 
more I made known my wants to the landlord of the 
hotel, a most obliging man, who at once introduced 
me to Mr. Mitchell as the proper person to guide 
me to the best haunts of the wild fowl of the 
bay. At eight j o’clock, night, I was on board his 
yacht. He was accompanied by his two brothers' 
Everything ready, we (stole quietly and silently away 
to the shooting grounds. It was a calm night, and 
not being able to sail the yacht, was towed by a row- 
boat. The harbor was dotted here and there with 
hunting yachts, their positions being indicated by a 
dim light burning in the cabin of each. Some of the 
most expensive of these are owned by Philadelphia and 
New York gentlemen sportsmen. As the night was 
dark, ever and anon I could hear the noise of the oars 
of other boats as they moved on to the hunting grounds, 
the dip of which alone warned us of their presence. 
What rumbling noise is that? A cataract or a roar of 
distant thunder? No, but the successive sounds of the 
wings of the thousand ducks as they rise from off the 
water. Again and again do these thus startle us from 
our reverie. Eleven o’clock and we are on the ground, 
but the law does not permit us to cast anchor until 
twelve o’clock. We must lay to until the hour. It 
comes at last and the anchor is thrown overboard and 
we are at rest. We turn from the deck and enter the 
cabin to seek a few hour’s sleep. A diflicult problem 
here meets us. The cabin is small, eight feet by six, 
and there are four of us. The choice of positions is 
given me and I stretch myself upon one of the bunks 
while one of the brothers takes the other opposite. 
Another with kneej drawn up and chin resting thereon, 
and the toes of his boots on the front of the stove, 
half in the cabin and half on deck, was soon oblivious 
of his uncomfortable position. The remaining one be- 
ing left to fill up what vacant space there was as best 
he could. I arose at the rising of the moon from my 
hard couch, refreshed. The men were already at work. 
I could hear the decoy ducks as they chucked them in 
succession out of the yacht into the row-boat. The 
preparations of the day, although begun at 4 o’clock, 
were not more than completed at the morning’s dawn. 
First there was the “.sink,” “coffin,” or “shooting box,” 
to betaken from off the deck of the sail-boat and then 
three hundred decoys from the yacht one by one and 
placed in the small boat. Next, several hundred pounds 
of iron to be passed to the boat for ballast, then the 
sink must be placed, its wings spread, anchored, and 
all the decoys arranged in position around it. ^ This is 
an appetizer for breakfast that all men would not like 
to take. With the first coming of the morning the gun- 
ner enters the “ coffin” and acts the part of a dead man 
until the ducks appear darting and hovering over the 
decoys, when he rises in his grave and delivers a deadly 
fire and then quickly reloads his gun, or guns, and falls 
back to repeat the same in a minute as opportunity af- 
fords. So perfect is the deception, »vhen the occupant 
is down that the most observing cannot discover the 
sink at the distance of a few^huudred yards. And did 
he not know of its existence would declare that the de- 
coys were a flock of ducks. No one can imagine, who 
has not witnessed the phenomenon, how strange it seems 
while anchored in a sail-boat half a mile away, to see a 
black figure arise as if from the deep and belch forth 
streaks of fire and then disappear from sight as if swal- 
lowed up by the waves. On some days the ducks fly 
into the decoys so fast that the shooter though he have 
two guns cannot load and fire as rapidly as they come 
in UDon him. The gunners of the Havre de Grace di- 
vision of the bay have killed as many as five thousand 
ducks in a single day. Mr. Mitchell said to me that 
he and his partner a few years ago bagged in three da}'8 
eight hundred and five ducks, the largest proportion 
being canvass-backs. 
'fhe gunners all use muzzle loaders and they can 
beat the world in loading them in a sink. Three or 
four motions and the gun is ready to fire. They make 
you think of the words of the poet: 
“ Nimbly do tho flngeri moTe, 
If a man be but Q»»d to his trade.” 
These gunners surprise yon too with the rapidity 
with which they arrange the decoys around the sink. 
They throw them into position with a quickness and 
precision that looks as though it was done without aim. 
The larger proportion of the decoys are placed leeward 
of the surface boat. The hetd of the shooting box is 
always anchored windward. 
For the benefit of those who have not seen one of these 
ingenious contrivances, the surface-boat, I will attempt 
a brief description of those in general use on the Ches- 
apeake. The box of the battery, the part in which the 
gunner lies, is some six feet long eighteen inches deep, 
two and a half feet wide at the top and narrowed at 
the bottom by a few inches. The platform is from ten 
to fourteen feet long, and from seven to nine feet wide. 
The wings from twenty to thirty inches in width, 
and the frames to wtiich the wings are attached 
are some thirty incln s aero is. There are rims of sheet 
lead surrounding the t.. .^.ler, which'are about six inches 
high, and can be turned up in a heavy sea. Tho plat- 
form to the box is not on a level with the top but slopes 
downward on every side about an inch, so as to make 
it more secure against the wash. The wings are secured 
to the platform by hinges, pliable to the waves yet re- 
sisting their force and beating them back, and when the 
“coffin” is taken from the water at the end of the day’s 
sport, they fold in upon the frame. The shooting-box 
is loaded with sufficient ballast to sink it so that the wa- 
ter is on a level with its top. Broken pigs are generally 
used for this purpose, and though thus loaded one sel- 
dom sinks, though sometimes filling with water. I have 
never heard of but two instances where the shooters 
had to be rgseued from sinking boxes. One experiences 
no apprehensions of danger while in these floating 
boats. Until accustomed to the batteries, they are awk- 
ward and hard to shoot from. I shall never forget the 
first time that I essayed to kill ducks in this manner. 
I crowded myself down the sides until reaching the 
bottom, with head elevated slightly that I might cast 
my eyes right and left and thus keep a sharp lookout on 
the decoys, with arms crowded up and straightened, 
hands grasping my gun, muzzle pointing over the left 
deck; stretched in this manner on my back, I waited 
the ducks. There they come ! Four red-heads! They 
dart; I rise, but before securing position to shoot, they 
discover my presence and are gone. I keep “rising and 
dropping down” until quite bruised and sufficiently ex, 
asperated in spirit for lack of success in bagging the 
birds, to make me determined not to miss again. I 
had practiced enough to become perfectly easy in any 
position in the box, but now sftiew difficulty presented 
itself; I could not from my position when down, accu- 
rately judge of the distance of coming ducks, so that I* 
was sure in three instances out of five to rise ere the 
ducks had come within shooting range, and have the 
mortification of seeing them curve off when on the 
extreme edge of the decoys. This, however, did noi 
last long. I made up my mind to wait patiently until 
the ducks had reached the point of settling. There 
come three canvass-backs in line of my decoys. How 
near they look! Hold, do not fire yet! Now they dart, 
hover, see their feet drop to touch the water. Now 
blaze away! Ah! Ah! one, two, three drop into the 
water. Bravo! my boy, the spell is broken. 5Iy 
breech-loader is ready in a minute and I fall back again. 
A lone duck appears, a red head. 1 wait as before, the 
dart, the hover, the droppingof legs; I rise and ere the 
duck can gather, my gun speaks and I hear the thud as 
the body strikes the water. For an hour I keep up a 
constant fire, missing but few ducks. lam satisfied, I 
have no longer doubts of my ability to shoot success- 
fully from a battery. Many of the gunners do not 
shoot before the ducks alight. Of course no true 
sportsman can countenance this practice. Without 
doubt the most successful moment to fire iss when the 
ducks drop their legs to settle on the water. They are 
then almost in a perpendicular position, with wings 
spread to the utmost, and seemingly at rest, and do in 
my opinion afford at this juncture a very easy shot, 
more so than if on the water. Uucks decoy best 
on windy days, since a slight breeze makes the decoys a 
little life like. There is motion if not life. There are 
other models of batteries in use elsewhere on our wa- 
ters. One that is a favorite in wild fowl shooting on 
our inland lakes differs but little from the Chesapeake 
surface boat, save in the style of construction of tho 
shooter’s box. This is so made that it wili permit him 
to shoot from a sitting posture, bending the body 
slightly forward, so as to conceal his person. Almost 
all the devices for taking wild fowl pracli.sed the world 
over, as well as those belonging exclusively to the Ches- 
apeake, have been tested on these waters. The one 
already described is the most successful. Many still 
shoot from points as tho birds pass to and from their 
feeding grounds. This affords good sport wherever 
practiced. To bo a successful point shot one must 
hold well abreast of the ducks. This kind of wing 
shooting tests best, in my opinion, the dexterity of the 
marksman. There are some excellent points in tho 
vicinity of Havre de Grace where this kind of shooting 
may be enjoyed in all its glory. The market gunner 
cannot afford to apply this chance method in obtaining 
ducks. Another plan in vogue here is called “bush- 
whacking.” This is practised by that class of gunners 
who cannot afford yachts. They place stool-birds out 
on the feedinggrounds and take possession of a row- 
boat amply supplied with cover of willows, cedar- 
brush or eel-grass. After the decoys are placed, the 
boat is moved off a hundred yards or more, where it 
remains until the ducks come and alight in the decoys. 
Then it moves toward them like floating brush when 
carried by the wind and current, stopping not until 
within shooting range, when the men rise and fire upon 
the unsuspicious fowl. A most curious way of bagging 
ducks, and practiced nowhere else in this country, is 
that called “toling.” By this, ducks are allured from 
the celery beds which are often several hundred yards 
from the shore, to within gun shot of the sportsman, 
who is concealed behind some blind. In this method a 
dog is taught to run the shore backward and forward so 
as to attract the attention of the ducks, being 
kept in motion either by throwing stones or movements 
of he thand. The fowl on noticing the strange move- 
ments on shore are curious to know the cause and com- 
mence to swim toward land. The sagacious dog per- 
ceives their coming, slackens hispacg, no longer jumps, 
but trots close to the ground, even crawls, as they ad- 
vance so that they may not discover the deception. On 
their near approach to the shore, the dog falls back, 
keeping up his plaj'ful pranks until the quick reports 
of the guns tell him that his part of the work is over. 
Now bedashes into the water to bring the killed ashore. 
Some shooters will not permit their toling dogs to re- 
trieve, since they are of opinion that it spoils these dogs 
to go into the water. The right moment to shoot is 
when the ducks discover their mistake and turn their 
sides toward you. Be sure and hold low on the nearest 
dueks to avoid over shooting. It requires careful and 
persistent training to develop sufficient taste and indus- 
try in the best of curs and mongrel water dogs, as the 
average possess but little sagacity and are the only dogs 
adapted to this sport. Toling ducks is falling into dis- 
use. Many of the sporting clubs of the bay do not 
practice it all, it not being considered by them a sports- 
manlike way of bagging game . 
The use of the “swivel-gun,” that most barbarous in- 
vention for the destruction of wild fowl is no longer 
suffered on the waters of the Chesapeake. 
The Jardin d' Acclimatation, Pari!, Is to have a large pigeon honsa’ 
which will hare the form of a tower, as high as the column of tho 
Place Vendome. Standing in the centre of the garden, it is to bo 
made the home of tuose carrier-pigeons destined to bring to Paris 
nows from all parts of France. 
Am AuTOJiiTOM Si’iDEn has been invented at Paris. The spider is 
life size, and is made of copper. By pressing a spring it will move 
ronnd the table in a way marvellously true to nature. It was made 
at Nuremburg 45 years ago, and was bought as a toy for the l)uc 
d'Aumale. Now it has been sold for £50. This automat-n is wor- 
thy to rank with the historic iron fly which flew around the room 
and perched on the hand of its master, or the artificial eagle which 
took its flight from a perch in front of the Emperor Frederick, and 
soaring aloft for some distance, returned to its starting place. 
