FOWL SHOOTING. 
123 
FOWL SHOOTING- ON LONG ISLAND. 
HIS sport, of which some persons be¬ 
come passionately fond, preferring it 
infinitely to Upland shooting, braving 
all sorts of weather, and incurring in¬ 
finite fatigue in pursuit of it, is fol¬ 
lowed on the Long Island bays, for 
the most part, by two methods only 
both of which, like the last, partake 
in all respects the nature of ambush, rather than of pursuit. 
The common, and what may be called the old-fashioned mode, 
closely resembles that above described, under the head of Bay 
Snipe shooting, and consists in secreting a boat, containing one 
or more gunners, in a recess scooped out of a mud bank, and 
disguising it still farther with sedges and sea-weeds, in a posi¬ 
tion commanding some favorite feeding ground of the Ducks 
and Geese, and anchoring a flock of wooden decoys at a proper 
distance from the station in the shallow water. 
As the tide rises, the fowl move from place to place, coming 
from what then becomes deep into shallower water, and vice 
versd, at the ebb ; and as they fly to and fro, they are attracted 
by what they imagine to be a flock of their confederates, and 
sail down to hold colloquy with them, sometimes even settling 
in their midst, and giving the experienced gunner favorable 
opportunities at times of getting three or four barrels into the 
flock, and so doing deadly execution. 
Canada Geese can often be induced to lower their flight, and 
gtoop to the decoys by the imitation, which is very accurately 
