16 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 6, 1912. 
Through the South with Gun and Rod 
twice as big as they naturally are, and the ducks 
detect the deception at a distance. 
It is very different when the sky is gray, the 
wind blowing strongly enough to kick up a good 
sea on the ocean, so that the birds cannot com¬ 
fortably rest there. Then they are obliged to 
resort to the Sound and seek more sheltered 
waters, passing about from one pond or bay to 
another, frequent’y shot at and generally kept 
on the move. 
Many of the boatmen are remarkably skillful 
in imitating the cry of the various birds, the 
honk of geese, quack of mallard or black- 
duck, whistle of wddgeon and sprig, growling 
whine of canvasback or croak of redhead. Often 
a flock of birds that passed without noticing the 
decoys may be turned and brought over them 
by a judicious uttering of the duck’s call. 
In recent years it has become more and more 
the custom to take out w'lth the w'ooden decoys 
a few live ducks which are tethered at opposite 
ends of the stand of wooden decoys. For such 
live ducks a stool is prepared—a long, sharp- 
pointed upright to be shoved into the muddy 
bottom—with a little circular stool or table three 
or four inches in diameter, which fits on the 
upper end of the stake, and is pushed down 
until it is an inch or two under the water. A 
long string from the upright terminates in two 
loops of leather, each a running noose, which 
are slipped over the live duck’s two feet, and 
it is placed in the water. For a time it swims 
about and feeds, and then comes to the table 
and mounts that, where it stands dressing its 
feathers, or looking up at the sky hour after 
hour. These live ducks call to each other and 
also to any birds that may be flying over. Often 
they will call as readily to a blackbird, a buz¬ 
zard or a heron, as to a blackduck or a mallard. 
Usually when they speak to wdld ducks, unless 
these have recently been alarmed, the birds put 
aside all suspicion and at once come down. 
During a recent visit to Currituck Sound in 
Continued on page 24. 
T he Persian monarch’s desire—a new pleas¬ 
ure—manifests itself in a shooting or fish¬ 
ing trip made to order. There are those 
who write guide books, who claim that half the 
pleasure of a trip is in the planning thereof— 
generally this half of the pleasure exists only be¬ 
fore the start, the other half takes place while you 
are living in bad hotels and looking for game that 
exists only in hotel booklets; the “third half’’ is en¬ 
joyed the balance of the year while you regret 
your foolishness in not-getting authentic infor¬ 
mation before you started. The object, there¬ 
fore, of this paper is not to do the thing by 
halves, but to lay out a complete route through 
the South, so that you may select your favorite 
ON A HOLIDAY IN KENTUCKY. 
State and know in just what section of it game 
is abundant. 
From New York city to the furthest end of 
the Florida Keys is a distance of 1,538 miles, the 
running t:me by rail being forty-eight hours, 
and practically every mile of this distance, after 
reaching the Virginia line, is abundant in its 
game and fish supply. 
The first shooting place touched is Old Point 
Comfort, nine hours out. Here is good duck 
shooting, and a fair bag of quail may be made 
on the hotel preserve. If you are ducking bent, 
keep along the coast to Currituck and Pamlico 
Sounds, which year after year justify their repu¬ 
tation as the best ground east of Texas for 
ducks, geese, brant and swans. Ocracoke, Beacon 
Island, Roanoke Island are places where duck 
rigs and guides are to be found. Close by Beau¬ 
fort lies Morehead City, where the fisherman 
has a chance at drum, sheepshead, Spanish mack¬ 
erel and sea trout. 
If not interested in fishing or fowling, take a 
short run back into Virginia to Clarksville, 
where farmers welcome you to little-shot-over 
country pretty well stocked with quail and charge 
you a do.lar a day for your keep and the use 
of a dog—such as it is. For the man with more 
fastidious notions. Chase City offers better ac¬ 
commodations but no better shooting. 
Bagley Mills is probably the best shooting 
ground in Virginia. Quail and woodcock are 
very plentiful, while turkeys may be had any 
day. Deer and 'possums live here almost undis¬ 
turbed. 
When one realizes the possibility of getting 
on the train at 9130 in the evening and being 
on the field shooting at ii 130 the following morn¬ 
ing, it is remarkable that there are any birds left 
at' Crowells, N. C., and yet with its proximity to 
New York, it abounds in quail, and the pros¬ 
pect of a wild turkey is not too remote. Every 
county in Florida and many in North Carolina 
demand a special $10 license, good only in issu¬ 
ing county. This makes it important that you 
land in a county where birds are plentiful. Prob¬ 
ably the best known shooting resort in North 
Carolina is Pinehurst, where Leonard 'Tufts has 
a well stocked preserve of several thousand 
acres, exceptionally good dogs and accommo¬ 
dations for the fastidious as well as for the 
unostentatious sportsman. In the northwestern 
part of the State, Mockville and Barber, famous 
for field trials; Greensboro, Ker-nersville, where 
are located extensive preserves of the Southern 
rai.way, and those of a number of prominent 
New Yorkers, offer particularly good quail shoot¬ 
ing. A little further west in the mountains is 
Linville Falls, one of the most inexpensive places 
in the country. Here mountain trout offer sur¬ 
passing sport to the angler; deer, bears and ’pos¬ 
sums are plentiful for the rifleman, while bob- 
white is troubled but little by local gunners, and 
is ever present for the visiting sportsman. 
In Southern North Carolina, Buies offers about 
as good quail shooting as does any place in the 
State. The country is flat and easy to hunt, while 
perfectly broken dogs are to be had. In this 
section is an excellent opportunity for a club 
to establish itself. A few miles from Buies is 
Rockingham, where first-class accommodations 
are reasonable and quail plentiful with dogs well 
trained. 
While South Carolina does not offer as cer¬ 
tain shooting as her sister State, still Blacks¬ 
burg and Rockhill in the north, Camden in the 
central and Grahamville in the southern part are 
plentifully supplied with quail and an occasional 
deer. Grahamville is reached from Ridgeland,' 
one hour from Savannah, Ga. It lies on Broad 
River, where drum fishing is excellent. Aiken 
offers well stocked preserves and high class ac¬ 
commodations. 
In Georgia, Tennille in the central part is 
abundant in quail, wild turkey and deer, while 
Brunswick on the coast is well equipped for the 
wildfowl as well as the quail hunter. In the 
country outlying Augusta and in Thomasville 
and Washington the quail hunter will get his 
fill. 
Florida offers various kinds of shooting and 
fishing, and is one of the few States where wild 
turkeys are at all plentiful. Starring at Jack- 
sonvifle, which is twenty-four hours from New 
York city by rail, we come first to Green Cove 
Springs on the picturesque St. John’s River. 
LINING UP FOR A TURKEY SHOOT 
