The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-21
WILD GEESE IN THE SOUTH.
Decoy Fowl That Are Glad to Entrap
Their Own Kind.
CFrom the Chicago Inter-Ocean.)

! (From the Chicago Inter-Ocean)
I In many parts of the south wild geese
! breeding is carried on for the benefit of
Z sportsmen, especially along the reed
bound shores of Hyde county, ~ c..
; where years ago some one wounded a
goose, bred from 1t and spread its product
/ through the district. Here are goose
! yards, and as soon as a hunter enters
/ the yard the inmates know like dogs,
that they are going hunting, and squawk,
/ fight and struggle to be the first to be
! taken out and placed in the coop or bag
/ in Which they are carried to the grounds.
! Pieces of green, tough-rooted turf are cut
and staked out in four or five inches of
water, and a goose is tethered to each
stake and allowed to stand on the sod
Thus placed the goose has the appearance
! of resting. The hunter retires to his
! blind to watch, not the skyline, but the
| tethered geese. Suddenly one stirs, an
made by one, and then away off will be
seen streak of moving gray dots, which
/ quickly develop into a flock, gander and
| goose in the lead, goslings to the rear
| The birds drop well out of shot, to see if
the quality of the geese on the sods per
nits a visit without loss Of caste. The
goslings, needless of social forms, gayly
start forward to gossip with the decoyS,
but the parents head them off, scolding,
cackling with many modulations and
saws and modern instances innumerable.
as wise parents have done to children
since the world began, until gradually the
gander himself yields to the clamorous
gable of the decoy aook which has kept
up a food of praises of the choice feeding
ground. He slowly drifts down with much
/ Importance, his females behind. the
youngsters in their train. His eye is
glued on that patch of reeds, and even a
4 mans eye at the opening, no bigger than
a dollar, a. bright coat button glinting in
the sun, the CLEAN of a diamond or the
lock of a gun, even the awkward flop of a
/ tethered goose from off its sod. is suffi-
Gent to send them away bag and bag
gage, and good day, good day to them.
A curious feature of these live decoy
geese is that they must not be shot over
The hunter is warned that, no matter
what happens, he must wait until the
strangers paddle to one side or the other
of the decoys, and failing that, he must
let his chance go by for II once he fires
directly over the tethered birds they get
nervous, and at the approach of stranger
flocks remember what happened and.
showing fear, disturb and unsettle the
strangers. Firing to the side they do not
have been out one or two seasons, when
they see the gun go up, down charge,
like a veteran setter or pointer, on their
pieces of sod chattering like parrots after
the wild birds are dropped Tanned
geese have been used on Long Island and
other places but not so generally as in
on the great south bay, Long Island.
the geese are shot from quaint boats,
which are SO designed that they will float
on water or may be pushed along on ice
by the occupant, having steel runners
underneath. When the geese are around
the hunter, in a white -oVerSuit, pushes
off from shore and paddles over to the
foe, his impetus carrying him on to it.
Then with the iron-shod oar he pushes
over it, across the next open water and
the next foe until he gets to the piece of
moved from the shore. Then he places
his stakes, draws his white apron over