Arizona republican., 1911-01-03
LIVE WILD GEESE AS pEcoYs
Bunting in an Odd Way in Hyde coun-
 .ty, North Carolina.

If there is another region within any kind of accessible distance from New
 York where the sportsman can find more abundant and varied use for his gun than along the reedy shores of Hyde county. North Carolina on the many inland lakes, deep in the pictur- esque swamps, and in the dense woods, would like to know where it is," re- marked a New Yorker who has been many times down there with his gun.
 As for feathered game, wild swan. wild geese. and wild ducks-canvas- backs. redheads, mallards and all the choice varieties-begin to drop down by the thousands as soon as the rigOrs of the winter in their native north set in.
 'The shores of the sound are vast tangles Of reedy marsh. The reeds are very tall. and the hunter does not Nave to build his blind to do his shooting from. All he has to do is to make a space in the reeds, close to the water. where he lies with the surrounding na- tural growth of reeds as his ambuscade.
 Especially do the waters about and in Hyde county seem to be an attrac- tion for wild geese of all varieties. The bulky and choice Canada goose I have found there more regularly and in larger number than in any of the noted wild fowl winter resorts.
 The novelty in the wild goose hunt in Hyde county is the use of live wild geese as decoys The willingness and evident enjoyment with which they per form this cold blooded task are almost incredible. If you are thinking of go- ing after wild geese. let me advise you to go to Norfolk, Va, take the Norfolk & Southern railroad to Bellhaven, ask for Captain Bill Tooley. get him and his flock of trained wild geese decoys, and let him take you down the Pungo river.
 'The efficacy of the live wild goose decoy is not entirely with the decoys voluntary setting. Each goose is placed upon a square of sod cut from the shore marsh. the sod being sunk below the surface of the water and held in position by driving a stake through it into the sand on the bottom. To the stake the decoy goose is fastened by strap around one leg. Standing thus on the submerged sod. the goose has the appearance of resting and floating on the surface, as if it had lit there and found the food and other conditions to be just what it was looking for. The skilful distribution and posing of a flock of these live de- coy geese in this way gives the fowl and the situation an appearance of na- turalness which the best artificial de- coys, no matter how expertly they may be placed, cannot approach.
 After the decoy geese are all placed to his satisfaction the hunter takes his station behind the thick growth of weeds where the blind has been arr ranged. It won't belong before the flock of decoys will become suddenly alert. They raise their heads and give forth resonant honks. The trained ear of the native hunter has not detected any cry to which this honking of the decoys is plainly a. response. but the wonderful keenness of the wild goose's hearing has heard 1.-the signals of an approaching flock of geese, high in the air. and beyond even the sight of the hunters eye.
 By and by you will see a faint V shaped line against the sky, the unmis- takable figure of a flock of geese in flight. In many cases but for the pres ence of the honking decOys you would see this line bear high and on in un- wavering procession toward more dis tant feeding and resting waters, safe from any depletion in it's numbers from your gun. The sound of the decoys. however, and the sight of them clus-