WIGEON. 165 



at Hale, it would appear that they have never been very 

 common on the Mersey. This decoy is the only one now 

 being worked in Lancashire, and through the kindness 

 of Col. Ireland-Blackburne, I have been favoured 

 with, as well as much other information, a copy of its 

 records for the years in which they have been kept. I 

 understand that before 1875 this was not done very 

 carefully. 



selves in the fancied security of the pool. The annexed plan is a 

 correct drawing of the Hale decoy. The main pool has five arms 

 or inlets called " pipes," curving away from it, so that it is not 

 possible to see more than a short distance up them, and so 

 arranged that whichever way the wind blows, one or other may 

 be approached without getting to windward of the quick-scented 

 wildfowl. These " pipes " are roofed over with netting, made as 

 light as possible, and are gradually duninished in height and width 

 till they terminate in a " tunnel-net." Wooden paUngs bound 

 them, and on one side are built- obliquely, overlapping each other 

 at regular distances and connected by low barriers, so that any one 

 standing behind them is only visible to whatever is fiu-ther up the 

 " pipe," and cannot be seen by the occupants of the pool. Further 

 aids to conceahuent, too, w^hen approaching, are provided by con- 

 tinuoi;s banks of earth and brushwood rimning parallel to the 

 palings. The decoy-man, accompanied by his little dog, which 

 should be as red and " foxy "-looking as possible, after ascertaining, 

 by peeping through slits in the palings, near which " pipe " the 

 fowl lie most conveniently, proceeds with the utmost caution till 

 behind those nearest the entrance. Opening a little hole in one of 

 the barriers, he slips the dog throiigh, who, at once becoming 

 visible to the fowl, trots up the bank inside till, arriving at another 

 hole higher up, he returns through again, and so comes back to 

 his master. The ducks, excited by curiositj', swim after the dog 

 up the " pipe," and as soon as they are far enough, the man shows 

 himself behind them, gesticulating violently but silently, and 

 di'ives them in terror on and on, till the tunnel-net receives them, 

 and this being loosened, and a twist given to it, they are qiiietly 

 seciu-ed. All this has been done out of sight of any birds remain- 

 ing on the pool, and the operation may be repeated tiU familiarity 

 has begot contempt, and the appearance of the dog ceased to 

 interest them. 



