BLINDS AND DECOYS. 
43 
lesser birds are readily called within reach, providing, of 
course, that the proper place has been selected. The bars 
and shoals are the favorite haunts of the black-breast plover, 
the willet and dowitches, while the meadow pond holes are 
the sure places to attract the yellowlegs, especially when the 
birds are traveling with the wind, cr as baymen call it, a 
“free wind.” 
Blinds are easily constructed out of cedar boughs cut about 
four feet in length, stuck in the sand or mud. They can also 
be made, when the wind is not blowing too hard, out of long 
reeds cut on the marsh. We have seen painted canvas 
screens, hinged so as to fold up, used, and one of Long 
Island’s famous gunners, once used an umbrella painted 
green, which served not only to hide his huge proportions, 
but kept off the fiery heat of the cun. The fact is, as we 
have said above, it depends very much upon the place, and, 
moreover, on the Conditions of wind and weather where to 
stool. While a vast number of birds in their autumnal flight 
fjllow the irregularities of the coast, there are countless 
numbers who make their migration far to sea, or take short 
cuts over the mainland. Those passing to sea only touch at 
the projecting points, and are consequently tame, while those 
which have run the gauntlet of an even shore or beach are 
wild, and less likely to stool. All these things must be taken 
into account, and the wilder the birds the better you must be 
hid. Sometimes it is impossible or inconvenient to construct 
a box such as described, or find suitable stuff to build a 
blind; then a rubber blanket can be spread on the marsh, 
and a few sedge bushes or heaps of sea-weed placed around 
you. 
The most favorable wind for bay snipe shooting in the 
summer and autumn is one that blows steadily from the 
southwest. The birds which are coming from the North, and 
flying against it, lower their flight and skirt the bars and 
meadows, and see the stools more plainly and decoy much 
better than when traveling with the wind in the clouds. A 
wet summer is also found to produce the best shooting, as 
the meadows afford plenty of feed, and should the birds arrive 
