Jan. 6, 1912.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
15 
Wildfowl in Currituck Sound 
By OLD MAN 
F ifty years ago there was no shooting of 
wildfowl on Currituck Sound, always one 
of the most important winter resorts for 
ducks, geese and swans. The Civil War had 
just begun, and most of the men of the South 
were in the Confederate ranks, fighting for the 
principles which for four long years they so 
splendidly upheld. Yet a few men still lived 
along the shore in Virginia and North Carolina, 
supporting themselves and their families chiefly 
by what they raised from the ground or drew 
non-resident sportsmen. There is a non-resi¬ 
dent license fee. In Currituck county. North 
Carolina, the non-resident is not permitted to 
shoot afloat. Such laws are not to be complained 
of by those whom they chiefly affect. It is, of 
course, wholly within the police powers of any 
State to make such regulations as it pleases with 
relation to the game within its borders. 
In most places the local gunners may shoot 
from batteries, or build bush blinds into which 
a boat can be shoved, the decoys being scat- 
teresting to the naturalist and irritating to the 
gunner, but is most effective in keeping up the 
duck supply. The North Carolina law provides 
that shooting must end at sunset and may not 
begin before sunrise. The ducks appear to 
understand this law, and are likely to 
come into their feeding grounds very soon 
after sunset, when they know they are safe. 
All night they feed there undisturbed, and in 
mild weather rise about daylight in the morn¬ 
ing in a dense mass and fly eastward, passing 
over the quiet waters of the Sound out to sea 
and alighting there to remain during the whole 
day. Thus, on warm bright days, one may sit 
in the blind or sail up and down the Sound all 
day long and hardly see a bird moving, but if 
he is on the feeding grounds fifteen or twenty 
IN A DUCK BLIND. 
From a photograph by H. \\’. Isaacs. 
out of the waters, and from time to time these 
men with their muzzleloading—and sometimes 
flintlock—guns killed a few waterfowl, but not 
enough to make the slightest impression on the 
vast hordes which each autumn came down from 
the North and spent the winter, and in spring 
again took their flight toward the pole. 
One of the earliest of Northern gunners to 
go down to this country was William Wade, 
who, perhaps in 1865 or 1866, joined with a few 
gunning friends and established the Currituck 
Club on the outer beach, where they had— 
and their successors still have—wonderful shoot¬ 
ing. 
It was not until between 1880 and 1890 that 
the gunning attractions of Currituck Sound be¬ 
gan to be understood by Northern sportsmen 
generally, but from that time on more and more 
of the marsh land was bought up for shooting 
purposes, until now there is little or no free 
land left there. 
The States of Virginia and North Carolina 
have passed more or less stringent laws against 
tercd about the bush blind, and often bringing 
down the high-flying trading birds within shot 
of the gun. 
Sometimes a local gunner, if he finds a flock 
of ducks or geese feeding near some point, or 
in some little bay, close to a marsh, will build 
his blind there and shoot from it. The blind 
may stand within four feet of the marsh, and 
the gunner shooting from his boat shoved into 
the blind is quite within his rights. Even though 
the marsh may belong to someone who had in¬ 
tended to shoot from the shore close to where 
the blind was built, the owner is powerless to 
remedy the matter. 
Although for many years past the wildfowl 
have been growing more and more scarce in 
Currituck Sound, there are still vast numbers 
there, and with the proper weather, club mem¬ 
bers who go there, or non-residents who arrange 
with landowners to shoot on their properties, 
may have splendid shooting. 
In recent years, however, the wi'dfowl have 
adopted a protective habit which is not only in¬ 
minutes after sunset he will see the ducks and 
geese coming in flocks and flying about him, 
utterly fearless. 
For the non-resident—and in North Carolina 
this commonly means the Northern gunner— 
point shooting is the only method by which 
wildfowl may be taken in Currituck Sound. This 
has often been described. If the weather hap¬ 
pens to be fair, mild and bright, he will have 
no occupation in his blind except to sleep, to 
talk to his boatman, or to read. Under such 
conditions the days seem long. One runs out 
of conversation after a time, and get tired of 
reading, while to sleep is wholly profitless. When 
the weather is fine, boatman and gunner alike 
become tired and dull; they cease to watch 
sharply for the birds, and if an occasional pair 
or single bird happens to be flying about, they 
are certain to choose such a time to cut in from 
behind and pass over the decoys, to be out of 
reach almost before they are seen. Moreover, 
in quiet weather, when the water is glassy, the 
reflection of the decoys makes the stools look 
