There are many different ways of hunting wild ducks. These wildfowl of the air have well-defined highways over which they travel. If one flock takes a certain route, the next flock follow ing is very apt to travel along the same course. Men have taken advantage of this trait, and by stationing themselves along the lines of flight they secure excellent shooting. This type of shoot ing is generally called pass shooting. The sport is at its best when the birds are "passing" from one body of water to another. At such a time they are low enough to shoot. When they are migrat ing, they travel at such heights that shooting is impossible.
The most popular form of duck hunting is known as decoy shooting. The hunter conceals himself in a blind of his making, and on the shallow water before him are placed a number of ducks made of wood, rubber, canvas or other material. The wild birds, in passing over, see apparently a flock of feeding ducks and swing in to alight. At this time the gunner rises and fires at the decoyed birds. The decoys are also called stools. Many gunners tie live ducks out in the water to act as decoys. When this is done, a stool is sometimes provided just under the surface of the water, so that the bird may climb out and rest. This probably explains the origin of the term.
Gunners use different types of blinds. The most common is made of rushes and grass to correspond with the shore line of the lake or river where the hunting is to take place. Often pits are dug in the lake banks. This type of blind is very efficient, as the gunner is completely hidden when down in the pit and there is nothing showing above the surface of the ground to attract the birds' attention and frighten them. In some sections small boats thatched with rushes and decked over, except for an opening, where the gunner sits, are used successfully. The gunner's legs extend under the deck, and he lies on his back in the shallow cock pit, completely hidden. When the ducks get within shooting range,
he rises to a sitting position to shoot. On tidal water, gunners use a blind known as a battery, or sink-box. Great numbers of birds can be killed from such a rig, which often has as many as 400 wooden decoys anchored around it. The rig is anchored in open water where great numbers of ducks have been feeding.
On rivers where great quantities of driftwood are floated during high water, this material makes excellent blinds. In the winter, ice is often used successfully, or gunners go out and cover them selves with white canvas to match the snow or ice. The main essential in blind building is to make the blind blend in with the surrounding terrain so that it is as inconspicuous as possible. In the grain countries of the West and North-west, a popular form of shooting is known as stubble-field shooting. All that is necessary here is to locate a large grain field where the birds are feeding. The gunner then hides in a shock of grain and fires when the ducks come over.
Geese are much more wary than ducks, and the only success ful way to hunt them is from blinds with decoys. In the West, the pit blind is used almost exclusively, but along tide-waters in the East many geese are killed from brush blinds or thatched blinds located out in the water with no attempt to make them inconspicuous. Such blinds usually have a dozen or more live wild geese as decoys. These birds call to passing flocks and toll them in. With inanimate decoys only, such blinds would not be very effective. In the grain fields and on big river sand-bars, pro file geese decoys made of sheet metal are very effective, especially if supported by one or more live geese. The various States and the Federal Government are setting aside refuges where no shooting will be allowed, in order that the breeding stock may not be sacrificed. (R. P. H.)