Feb. 19, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
395 
On Monday my companion and I set out for 
an island four or five miles distant from the 
house, where is situated Long Pond. A motor 
skiff carried us, while behind it trailed our gun¬ 
ning skiff in which sat John, who tended us, and 
with him all our implements of warfare. Less 
than forty minutes brought us to the mouth of 
the ditch by which access is had to Long Pond, 
and leaving us here, the motor boat returned to 
the club, while with the aid of one of the watch¬ 
men our gunning skiff was shoved through the 
ditch and through a series of ponds to the one 
that we had chosen. 
The day was delightful and the sun warm. 
As the light skiff was pushed over the shallow 
water of the pond it could be seen that this 
water had been recently disturbed, for it was 
roily, and in it were floating bits of grass and 
weeds. Evidently the ducks had been feeding 
there during the night and had recently left, dis¬ 
turbed by some noise or perhaps by the appear¬ 
ance of a sail without the marsh. The watch¬ 
man told us that several hundred ducks spent 
each night in this pond and said that he had 
between us at the front of the blind, and were 
ready for any ducks that might come. 
The wind was blowing from the southward 
and we were facing east. This meant that the 
birds would come in from the left, and that if 
a single bird came, the man sitting to leeward 
would have the chance to kill it. To my com¬ 
panion, whose experience in duck shooting was 
slight, I briefly expounded some of the prin¬ 
ciples of the etiquette which prevails where two 
men are shooting in a blind. Before my lecture 
was finished, however, a small speck appeared 
in the eastern sky, coming directly toward us, 
and as it drew nearer we could see that it was 
a duck, probably an old black duck. Before long 
it was close upon us, and seeing the decoys, 
swung off to leeward, and then coming over 
the pond, headed directly toward the decoys, and 
a moment later, when it was over them, my com¬ 
panion rose to his feet and promptly killed it. 
For the next hour or two things were rather 
dull, though now and then a bird came in to be 
hit or missed as the case might be. Suddenly 
without warning and coming down the wind, a 
height of two or three gun shots above the marsh 
they would fly around in great circles, turning 
their heads and looking down to inspect every¬ 
thing that was going on below. Too often this 
inspection was not satisfactory, and without low¬ 
ering their flight they went off to find some more 
satisfactory resting place. Yet now and then 
some less cautious bird would come along, and 
seeing the decoys, with curved wings dropped 
down out of the heavens to join the painted 
images that swam in the water. One or two 
of these descending birds were secured, yet for 
me this is always a difficult shot. I do not know 
whether I shoot over them or under, but in some 
way or other I very often miss them. 
All through the day we had been watching the 
flocks of geese which were passing here and 
there over the marsh. Into one little pond not 
more than a quarter of a mile from us half a 
dozen flocks had gone down, swinging carefully 
around two or three times, and then setting their 
wings and dropping slowly, slowly, slowly, until 
they disappeared behind the tops of the cane, 
but none of the geese had come near us. 
A POND IN THE MARSH. 
PICKING UP THE DECOYS. 
Photographs by Frank Page. 
THE GOOSE PEN. 
seen them go out that morning only an hour or 
two before. We hoped very earnestly that be¬ 
fore long they would begin to return and would 
come back by ones, twos and threes, so as to 
give us much shooting. On the other hand all 
about us were vast areas of marsh with little 
ponds and leads and flag holes everywhere—the 
choicest of feeding and resting places for ducks. 
They might go to any of these places. 
Shoving along the shore of the pond toward 
its southern end, the boat’s nose presently 
touched the marsh and the two gunners landed 
close to a blind formed of tall canes thrust into 
the soft soil, and then after their various prop¬ 
erties—chairs, shell box, gun sticks and heavy 
coats—had been deposited on the marsh, the 
tender and the watchman shoved the skiff out 
in front of the blind and began to put out the 
decoys. The work was quickly and handily done, 
the men appearing to throw out each decoy and 
its weight without any special care, but when 
they had finished and the boat had been pushed 
off to one side to be hidden in the marsh, a 
natural looking flock of twenty-five or thirty 
imitation ducks, headed by four wooden goose 
decoys, floated on the quiet water not more than 
twenty yards from the blind. Meantime we had 
put our chairs in position, thrust our gun sticks 
into the soft marsh, rested the guns in the 
crotches of their upper ends, put the shell box 
fine old canvasback appeared, and just as he be¬ 
gan to lower himself over the decoys I was lucky 
enough to hit him, and he fell just outside of 
the decoys. Even as I stooped down to get an¬ 
other shell another canvasback followed him and 
plumped down into the decoys,, striking the water 
just as my companion pulled the trigger, and I 
had the pleasure of congratulating him on hav¬ 
ing killed his first canvasback. 
A little later I was watching with much in¬ 
terest a curious bird which was flying toward us 
over the marsh. To my eye it seemed to fly like 
a plover. Its wings were long and slim and 
slightly turned up at the end. For a moment 
I could not clearly make out what it was, then 
suddenly it turned, darted to one side, turned 
back and darted to the other side, and in an in¬ 
stant I recognized it as a teal. It came straight 
for the decoys, low down and a little to my 
left, and as my companion rose to shoot, the 
bird turned, and as it seemed to me without 
effort, darted twenty-five feet straight up into the 
air. The charge of shot following it overtook 
it, and it turned over and fell into the water 
close to the shore. It was a beautiful little 
green-winged teal, and before the day was over 
we got several more of these. 
Occasionally we saw in the distance high-flying 
birds which, as they approached, were recognized 
as sprigtails, among the wariest of ducks. At a 
It was toward the end of the day that four 
geese were seen heading up in our direction, and 
I asked John to see if he could not call them in. 
Bending forward and directing his face toward 
the ground, and sometimes shading his mouth 
with his hand, he began to imitate the cry of the 
female Canada goose with such truth to nature 
that I was surprised—as I have been surprised 
a hundred times before—at the singular fidelity 
with which the gunners of that shore can imitate 
the cry of the goose. The call was effective, and 
in a moment the geese veered a little toward us, 
and presently when some way down the pond 
they saw our wooden goose decoys, and hearing 
the continual cry of the tender, they turned, and 
swinging up toward us, set their wings, and I 
believe would have alighted in the water had we 
permitted them to do so. As it was, they swung 
up close to and over the blind, and when we 
rose and shot at them they were very near us. 
I am one of those who believe that at reason¬ 
able distances small shot, if properly directed, 
are much more likely to be effective than large, 
and I killed my goose by shooting it in the head 
and neck with a charge of 4’s. My companion 
had hastily thrust two cartridges of buckshot 
into his gun, and one of these hit another goose 
which went some distance before falling. 
The wind was strong from the south, the water 
low and the air cold, It was, therefore, a long 
