sandy beaches and then resorted to the marshes in which to spend the
night. That was the usual procedure for from ten to fifteen days, then
away they went to their more northern breeding grounds where they spent
midsummer.

Seeing a hawk soaring overhead, Oo-koo-hoo said it reminded him of a
hawk that once bothered him by repeatedly swooping down among his
dead-duck decoys, and each time he had to rush from his blind to drive
the hawk away or it would have carried away one of his dead ducks; and
being short of ammunition, he did not care to waste a shot. But he
ended the trouble by taking up all his dead ducks save one. Then he
removed the pointed iron from his muskrat spear, and ramming the butt
of the iron into the sand, left it standing up beside the duck as
though it had been a reed. The next time the hawk swooped down, he let
it drive with full force at the dead duck, and thus impale itself on
the muskrat spear.

But one day, after the geese had passed on their northward journey,
Oo-koo-hoo began making other decoys of a different nature, and when I
questioned him, he replied that he was going to kill a few loons with
his bow and arrow, as Granny wished to use the skins of their necks to
make a work-bag for the Factor's wife at Fort Consolation. After
shaping the decoys, he mixed together gunpowder, charcoal, and grease
with which to paint the decoys black--save where he left spots of the
light-coloured wood to represent the white markings of those beautiful
birds. When the decoys were eventually anchored in the bay they bobbed
about on the rippling water quite true to life and they even took an
occasional dive, when the anchor thong ran taut.