32 THE BOOK OF Dl'CK DECOYS. 



I need scarcely say. did tlie ducks see him move past the openings 

 between the screens, they would be out of the pipe in an instant. Nor 

 would all the Decoymen alive ever persuade them into it again that day, 

 perhaps not for a week, likely enough never. 



There are two methods by which this important feat of driving up the 

 fowl is managed. 



1st. A few feet behind the screens and dog-jumps, and in a line with 

 them on the same curve, — that being the curve of the pipe — are back screens, 

 30 feet long. 



These back screens consist of three only, and at their ends they also 

 overlap. 



The divisions between them allow a man to pass to their rear easily 

 and quickly. 



These openings are just opposite the spots in the ditch at which, when 

 the ducks have been lured so far, they are far enough to drive up the pipe. 



When the Decoyman has succeeded in enticing them this very neces- 

 sary distance, he that instant steps backwards between the back screens and 

 so races unobserved to the shew place at the mouth of the pipe, just as 

 he turns to leave the pipe, he throws into it, over the screen in front of 

 him, his last handful of grain, or urges his dog over the jump and round 

 its front, according as he happens to be dogging or feeding. If, when the 

 Decoyman reaches his show place, the fowl are still above him, as of course 

 they should be, up the pipe they are sure to go, as f/iey think to save their 

 lives. If the birds are a good way up the pipe the Decoyman need not go 

 all the way to the head shew place, but can appear behind the fowl at one 

 of the dog-jumps. 



But the Deco\man has to be very quick, for the moment the dog 

 ceases working round the screens, or the supply of grain stops falling into 

 the water, the birds very often are liable to beat a retreat by swimming 

 down the pipe towards the pond from whence they came. 



However, unless really alarmed, they can nearly always be intercepted 

 in time and with their heads still pointing up the pipe, and consequently 

 in the right direction for them to take wing. 



2nd. The other method is precisely similar in its effect, and differs only 

 in respect to the way the Decoyman gets behind the birds when in the pipe. 

 Instead of back screens a concealed path that leads circuitously to the head 



