21 



CHAPTER I I. 

 DECOYING. 



The System of Catching the Birds when tn the Decoy Pii-es. 



In all Decoys, the sole object of the Decoyman is to induce the wild 

 ducks to enter under the netting of a pipe, and then to swim up its ditch 

 to such a distance that he can cut off their retreat back to the pond. 



This latter manoeuvre the Decoyman achieves by getting behind the 

 birds when he has enticed them far enough up the pipe, and then, by 

 suddenly showing himself, first at the entrance of the pipe, and afterwards 

 over the dog-jumps between the screens as he quickly passes along their 

 rear, he frightens them up it. 



This feat is the backbone of Decoying. The surprised fowl having 

 no time to consider, and sooner than pass by the Decoyman, who, so to 

 speak, bars their way back to the pond again, the)' dash away from him up 

 the pipe. 



Such a course they would never take but that the bend or twist of 

 the pipe, which hides its fatal closed end, deludes them into thinking, in 

 their hurry and confusion, that it leads round its curve to open space and 

 so to freedom. 



It is an act that when suddenly alarmed they cannot weigh the wisdom 

 of, though in their cooler moments they are with difficulty induced to swim 

 even a few yards up a pipe for fear of a snare. 



As they follow one another pell-mell and wild with fright, rebounding 

 against the net of the pipe as they drive along, they become more and 

 more confused and crowded, and still less able to judge whither they are 

 speeding. 



Yet on they go, for are they not conscious of the dreadful form of the 



