Shooting Stands of Eastern Massachusetts (1929)

Shooting stands were permanent enclosed structures with connecting walls or embankments constructed along the shores of ponds and lakes of eastern Massachusetts for waterfowl hunting. Such stands were concealed by brush and reeds, and decoys, both live and wooden, were placed before them to attract passing ducks, geese, and other water birds. Stand owners often kept daily records of the species and numbers of birds shot, the participating hunters, weather conditions, and performance of decoys and retrieving dogs. John Phillips was well known and regarded in the Boston area sporting fraternity, so he personally knew or knew of many of the shooting stand owners. This facilitated his obtaining access to these precious records. The shooting stand records he gathered, edited, and published filled what otherwise would have been a significant void in the literature of North American waterfowl hunting. Phillips was closely associated with the Boone and Crockett Club, the American Committee for International Wildlife Protection, the International Union for the Protection of Wildlife, and other conservation organizations too numerous to mention. Of his varied interests, probably none surpassed that in waterfowl, and their hunting, history, and conservation.–Henry M. Reeves.