192 REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 



abundant. Paths are left in the thickets for the decoy-raeu, by which they reach 

 the screen near the head-end or mouth of the pipes, another entrance being 

 made near the j]oint or small end, which is screened by two reed fences, so that 

 a passer-by is not seen even from the small end of the pipe. The pipes consist 

 of a small end, the elbow, and the head-end, arched with nettinK, the meshes of 

 which are from three to four square inches. A trianKular jiiece of Rround 

 l)etween the water of the pipe and the screen is called the bdck sJwre, and is 

 made for the wild fowl to lodge upon. A narrow strip of l*aud on the opposite 

 side is called the fore shore. The head-end of the pipe is 15ft. across, at the 

 elbow l'2ft., and the small end 2ft. Here a movable net called the tunnel is 

 placed, which opens to the pipe, and into which the wild fowl are driven and 

 captured. The screens are so placed that the decoy-men can walk from the 

 small-end of the pipe to the head-end without being seen by the birds, whether 

 they are on the back shore or wing-pole. The piper (dog) is a necessary agent in 

 the working of the decoy. He is early trained to leap over the board, receiving 

 a piece of cheese as a rewai-d ; never to bark or play when on duty, or to take any 

 notice of the fowl. There are about forty ducks of a wild-duck colour called 

 Decoy Ducks kept in the pool ; they breed upon the shores, and are trained not to 

 enter the pipes, but to come to the head-end in answer to a faint whistle, and 

 there to be fed. This takes place principally at night, when the wild fowl 

 have left the Decoy. The wild fowl generally come to the Decoy in .\ugust, 

 and are left in quietude till November. The birds leave the Decoy as night 

 approaches and return in the daytime for shelter and apparent security. If a 

 north-easterly wind is blowing work will be commenced at the north pipe, so 

 that the wind would blow from the point nearly to the pool. The man throws 

 the dog a piece of cheese, the " i^iper " leaps the neai-est board fence, and runs 

 along the fore-shore and returns through a small hole in one of the fences. 

 The fowlei-s watch through little slits made in the screens. The man near the 

 small end of the pipe gives sign by moving his hat in the air ; another piece 

 of cheese is thrown, the dog leaps again, tame ducks and wild ones are in the 

 mouth of the pipe, the decoy man throws over the screen a few small dark 

 seeds, the tame ducks begin to feed, the dog leaps again higher up the pipe, 

 the wild fowl pursue him to gratify their curiosity, and leave the decoy ducks 

 feeding; the man then comes to the open, and without noise drives the fowl 

 into the small end of the pipe, and thence into the tunnel net, whei-e the 

 necks of the captives are wrung. The chief wild fowl are ducks, widgeon, and 

 teal. Croyland Abbey was next visited, where an informal address was given by 

 the Rev. T. H. Le Boeuf, many additional points of interest being pointed out 

 by the Rev. W. D. Sweeting. The party ne.xt repaired to a large clay section 

 about a mile from Croyland, on the estate of Lord Normantou. The section 

 consists of from eight to ten feet of a blue greasy clay, which contains num- 

 erous land and marine shells, the trunks of trees, both erect and lying down, 

 resting on from twelve to fourteen inches of peat, with green rush leaves, 

 land and freshwater shells, and the roots of the trees, the whole resting 

 on the boulder clay. It is evident that this deposit was made in a basin 

 forming part of a large river mouth. The boulder clay came nearly to the 

 surface, and the jjeat formed the ancient soil, subsidence took place, the 

 area was flooded, the blue clay deposited after a lapse of a considerable 

 time, and the whole of the land gradually raised to its existing level. At 

 Thorney Abbey an address was given by the Rev. W. D. Sweeting, in which 

 the details of its architecture, &c. were explained. The Annual Meeting of the 

 Society was held on Monday, June 13th, when the report of the past yeai was 

 read, and the election of officers took place. The Very Rev. the Dean of Peter- 

 borough was unanimously re-elected President, and Mr. J. W. Bodger Honorary 

 Secretary. Excursions have been made in the neighbourhood on the Monday 

 evenings since the 12th June. 



EXCHANGE.— Canadian Minerals, Silurian and Pleistocene Fossils, and 

 English Rhsetic, Lias and Greensand Fossils, in exchange for other Fossils or 

 Books, — Arthur Floyd, Stratford-upon-Avon, 



