Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-11-01

A LII the world and his dog will go a
"A cunning for rabbits today. In Penn
sylvania they have been shooting squirrel
grouse and quail since october 20, but today
thousands of hunters are after the willy
cottontail. The rabbit, squirrel, quail ana
grouse season will not open in New Jersey
until the tenth of this month The duck
season opens in Maryland today, but no
shooting will be permitted until tomorrow
as cunning is allowed only on Mondays
Wednesdays and Fridays.
with the rabbit habltats more and more
restricted and with the farmers protesting
more and more against gunners and their
dogs trampng over their fields, the chase
of the rabbit is harder with each year NO
longer are gunners permitted to shoot rap
bits when there is snow on the ground, so u
means lot Of trampng before the shot
gun experts can hope to get full bag.
But, after all duck shooting is the real
sport at this time of the year, and while
comparatively few are shot here, less than
two hours away there is the greatest duck
shooting in this country, where the canvas
backs and the red and black heads and the
swift-fying geese may be found by
the thousands. Bert Crowhurst, who knows
as much about duck shooting as any other
man in the State. said yesterday that he
has been near Havre de Grace Just when
the day was breaking. The captain of the
craft would bang on a tin pan and he has
seen thousands Of ducks rise from the
water. and their wings they struggled
to get into the air reminded him Of tre-
mendous thunderstorm.
The Greatest Ducking Grounds
So If you want to go duck hunting the
| best place around Philadelphia and the
| haunt of hundreds of Philadelphians is the
| big stretch of fats near Havre de Grace, on
! the Susquehanna River. Between Carpenter
| Point and Turkey Point there. is an imag-
mary line over which the gunners are not
| permitted to go until certain time In
| the morning-5:3 80, or thereabouts. But
| when the time comes the hundreds of sneak
boats are there lined up ready to begin the
season. And If you should be on the fats
early tomorrow morning you will see this
| unique sight.
| Once over the line the gunners anchor
their decoys and place their sneakboxes in
| position. Some of the boats have as high
! as 500 decoys and others as few as fifty.
| There are single and double sneakboXes, but
! the most popular is the single. II lies
mostly beneath the water and the only thing
that keeps the water out is the gunwhale.
| Stretching out from all sides are wings, and
on these are iron decoys, and the wings
move up and down with the water so as
to give the ducks the appearance of life
| And around on all sides are the wooden
| decoys.
Naturally, the best time for shooting is
the first hour or so, for then the ducks
have had good nights rest and there has
been no incessant firing to disturb them.
| The hunter lies fiat in the sneak box with
his gun ready for action. He is careful
not to move as the duck is a mighty scary
| animal" and sees the gunner long before
| the gunner gets a glimpse Of him. Soon
the ducks appear. and after circling round
| and round, they land in the water among
the decoys with n splash. Then the gunner
sits up and bangs away at the ducks The
rest of the party are in the yacht or boat
and one of them with field glasses has
| noted where the ducks have fallen, and