The sun., 1903-06-28

themselves from the body and started TO-
ward him. They were his lost decoys
They swan straight to the boat. Topped
over the gunwale and sq!at,nd contentedly
on the bottom, willing 10 60 home.
In buying, or using live duck decoys it is
an axiom that the darker the duck tine
better the decoy. This is because the wild
ducks are all darker than the tame ones.
Most tame ducks are too light for the pur-
pose and the focks Of MANY yards must be
Culled
The fancy breeds are not usnd only the
are exact limitations of wild mal!ard brakes
green heads curled black feathers above
the tail and all, and the hens when dark
enough are good limitations. too. The
call is fair reproduction OF that of the
wild mallard. though it has the domestic
timbre inseparable from barnyard ducks
There are no tame reproductions Of blue
bills or bu,terballs or teals, though some
effort has been made to breed them. but
these smaller and toothsome flyers will
swing into the Muscovies all right. In
fact the teal. which is $, rongly gregarious.
Will come to almost any sort Of duck decoy,
and If let alone on warm day will probably
60 to sleep on the water within foot Of
the tame. dead or wooden decoy.
Tbe wild goose in captivity is a much
better decoy than the wild duck. 1t is a
more placid bird, and soon comes to ey-
',
1t is not used upon the water, since Canada
geese seldom feed there. but it is hitched
out on prairie and quietly graZes while its
companions arc done to death. 1t sets up
slight c!amor when the guns sound. but
sool subsidies into quiet
1t IL tethered by a string forty or fifty
feet long and has II considerable grazing
area. and as often As not il will feed close to
the blind, which is generally a pit dug
in the sod deep enough to hide a man to
his shoulders and wide enough to allow free
play of his body. It's wings are closely
clipped and it learns soon that it cannot
fly.
1t is not known how long the Canada
goose will live in captivity, because their
use as decoys is of rather regent origin
There are geese in the West, however, that
have been shot over for five or six seasons,
and they are as strong and sound as ever.
Probably they will live as long as a tame
goose, which is supposed to live as long as
a man. so bunch of them bought for sport
ing purposes may be regarded as q per-
manent investment.
Many of he eggs offered for sale are from
wild geese kept in this way, but the bulk OF
them are from wild nests. A couple of
old bachelor brothers living near the south
enstern edge of the great kankakee marsh
in Illinois and Indiana have been raising
seem to have made it pay. AT least. they
have good house and some land and do not
work hard enough to jar themselves, though
the geese are their only source Of income.
More of these birds are to be found IN
the bottoms of the Tarkio River, in south
western Iowa. than elsewhere. There the
wild goose industry has been established
for some time, The Tarkio country is
largely freQuented by sportsmen who go
there for their shooting chiefly because
they can rent the wild decoys. A heavy
flight of geese visits the region each fall
and spring, and with a team of decoys
staked out hunter may kill as many in a
day as he can Use and go back to the city
with bag calculated to make the eyes OF
acauaintances open in astonshment
The number of geese that are hit hard
enough to fall, yet not hard enough to die
ifthey are cared for, is surprising Every
man who has shot through a season or two
will recall instances within his own ex-
perience of birds that might have been
saved. Such birds are an important source
of recruits for the nocks OF wild decoys.
The wounds Of birds heal rapidly. The
capt:ves undergo short period of denres-