DECOYING WITH A DOG. 25 



" quacks " towards the fox again, as he once more recovered his composure 

 and sat up on his haunches as before. 



The fox made several futile attempts at a capture, only to get an absurd 

 sprawling fall every time he tried to spring. 



Finally, he left the ice looking sulky and supperless, the ducks follow- 

 ing him to the bank as he retired. This very fox my friend once caught 

 in the tunnel net of a pipe, whither he unadvisably let himself be driven. 

 He had just previously been seen sneaking about the inside of the pipe 

 after the Decoy ducks. He was caught and well whipped with a light twig, 

 as a warning to him to leave the Decoy and its ducks alone. This was at 

 a time when the pond was covered with ice. Bj' the next morning the fox 

 had Avell avenged the insult to his person, for at daylight not one out of 

 seventeen Decoy ducks was left alive. Heads in one direction, bodies in 

 another, and blood and feathers all over the ice of the Decoy. I need 

 scarcely add that the fox-hunting folk, when they heard of the affair, were 

 greatly amused, and hinted at a "just retribution." 



I have said a good deal about ii.'hy the ducks follow the dog, I will 

 now explain Jiow they are induced to do so, and describe the part the dog 

 takes in the pantomime of decoying the ducks. 



His master, the Decoyman, whom he knows well and obeys implicitly, 

 whether the order be given by a whisper or by a move of the hand, signals 

 him to the mouth of the pipe and bids him by a sign lie down behind a 

 screen. 



The Decoyman next cautiously reconnoitres, through the peep- 

 holes in the screens, the ducks swimming about the pond ; and near 

 the mouth of the pipe he has decided, owing to favourable circum- 

 stances, to work. He has, of course, selected a pipe that suits the wind, 

 and about the mouth of which, and on the banks near, the birds are 

 gathered. 



After noting the position of the fowl, he, by a sign, directs his dog 

 to bound over one of the dog-jumps near the mouth of the pipe. He takes 

 care that the dog has no birds above him up the pipe, but that they are 

 always on the pond side of him, so as to follow, not to meet him. In the 

 latter case they would not Decoy. 



The dog having jumped into view from the corner ot the screen, runs 



E 



