The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-02-14
DEC0Y GEESE.
Live Birds That Lead Their Kind
to Death.
A Novel and Effective Way of Capturing
wild IOwl-Great Ground for
SpOTtsmen in North
Carolina.

York where the sportsman can ma
more abundant and varied use for his
gun than along the reedy shores of
HYDE county, North Carolina, on the
many inland lakes and in the dense
woods in that country, | would like to
know where it is, said an enthusiastic
and travelled sportsman, according to
the New York sun. AS soon as the
rigors of the northern winter set in,
wild swan, wild geese and wild ducks
-canvasbucks, mallards, redhcads and
all the choice varieties-begin to drop
down in thousands in the Hyde county
and adjacent waters, and for months
delight the gunner by their persistent
presence.
Especially do those waters seem to
be an attraction for wild geese, which
are the smartest, widest and most sus-
picious of all the wild fowl that con-
gregate down there. Even in spite of
their numbers, and with the novel and
effective way geese are hunted on the
Hyde county waters, man mustn't go
there with the idea that all he has to
do is to squat in his blind, blaze away
and gather in his game, for if he does
he will be disappointed. The novelty
in wild goose hunting in that locality
is the use of live decoys, the actual
training of wild geese to lure as cap
tives their free kind to destruction.
Years ago, so many that no one can re-
member the time, some Hyde county
hunter wounded wild goose, captured
it and took it home alive. 1t recovered
and began to lay eggs. After it had
laid a couple of dozen or so of eggs the
goose wanted to set, and they set her.
She Matched out big brood of goslings
and they were genuine wild ones.
Then the owner of this brood of wild
goslings got the idea that when the
young geese were large enough he
might utilize them as decoys for wild
geese lie gave his idea trial. The
result proved that it was a great idea,
and ever since then the raising and
training of wild geese to be used in
making the goose hunt more successful
has been a regular industry on that
part of the North Carolina coast.
The bottom Of Pamico sound, along
the shores, is Of snow-white sand, and
in it are the nutritive roots of the
plants on which the wild geese feed.
The shores themselves are vast tangles
of reedy marsh. Tho reeds are very
tall and the hunter does not have to
build his blind for wild-fowl shooting.
He simply makes space in the reeds,
close to the water, and lies there, with
the natural surrounding growth Of
reeds as his ambuscade. When the
goose hunter goes out to lie in wait for
his game he takes with him as many OF
his decoy geese as he wants to use.
These are easily obtained, for in every
locality there are one or more persons
who have from ten to fifty geese that
are at the sportsman's service, either by
hire or purchase. The goose yards,
where these decoy geese are raised and
trained, are familiar portions of the
premises of the Hyde county native.
The trained wild geese know when
they are going hunting as well as a
bird dog or deer hound. They are
taken from the yard to the hunting
ground sometimes in coop and some
times in bag with holes cut in it, out
of which they stick their heads. The
moment q hunter appears at yard to
hire or buy an outfit of decoy geese the
fowls become excited and set up a
great cackling. The number the hun
ter wants being selected, the coop or
bag is produced. The geese scamper
to creep in and then become quiet.
When the spot where the decoys are to
be set is reached the hunter or his at
tendant cuts from the marsh as
many pieces of sod as there are geese
to be used. These pieces of sod are
about foot square. Each one is sunk
six inches beneath the surface of the
water and secured there by driving a
stake through it into the sand. To
this stake a goose is fastened by strap
around it's leg, the decoy standing on
the sod. This gives it the appearance
of resting and floating on the surface,
as If it had alighted there, and the
skillful distribution of geese in a group
in this way gives an appearance of nat
uralness which the best artificial de-
coys cannot approach, no matter how
eXpertly they may be placed or ma
nipulated
After his geese are all placed the
hunter takes his station behind the
thick growth of reeds. 1t is mani
festation of the wonderful keenness of
n wild goose's hearing that long before
even the trained ear of the professional
fowl hunter has detected the cries of
an approaching flock of geese, the de-
coys have heard them, and, becoming
suddenly alert, begin to send back re-
sponsivc honks. BY and by faint "
shaped line comes into sight against
the sky, that unmistakable figure of a
flock of geese in fight. In many in
stances the hidden hunter would see
this line keep high in unwavering pro-
cession toward distant resting and
feeding grounds but for the presence
of his honking decoys The sound of
their cries and the sight of them clus-
tered on the water rarely fail to cause
a<-aoclS to drop lower, circle back and
finally plump into the water for inves-
tigation.
Paid for Their Joke.