so THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. 



At Fi-itton Hall [see Fritton Decoy) there is a portrait of a large 

 Newfoundland (?) which many years ago was a famous Decoy dog. 



The Food. 



This must never be spared in a Decoy, and should be strewn about 

 the landings and in the water near the pipes overnight. The wild birds 

 soon spread the good news, and more and more fowl will collect in the 

 pool in consequence of their being, as Decoymen say, "tethered by the 

 tooth." 



Decoymen profess to specially prepare the grain they use when feed- 

 ing up the fowl, but it is more the way it is thrown and used than the 

 actual food itself. 



It is necessary that the first handfuls of food thrown in should be 

 light and dry, that it may float well, and so attract the attention of the 

 birds as it drifts along the surface of the water. Some Decoymen use 

 bruised oats for this reason, when first commencing to feed in a pipe. 



Buckwheat is as good as anything to use ; also oats, with some hemp- 

 seed oil sprinkled on them. Malt grains, or coombs,* flavoured by aniseed, 

 will sometimes draw fowl up a pipe when they refuse other food. 



Hempseed or canary seed is also very attractive to wildfowl as a 

 change, and especially so to Teal. Decoymen also place great faith in 

 what is well known in the fens as "Willow-weed." The Esse.x men prefer 

 it to any other food, especially for Wigeon, and take no little trouble to 

 obtain it from Norfolk or Lincoln. This weed is Polygoimm persicaria 

 (spotted knot-grass). It grows in fenny soil among the corn, and has a 

 small black triangular-shaped seed, and a black horseshoe patch on its 

 leaves. Farmers when threshing often save it to feed their poultry and 

 pigeons with. 



But Ducks will feed on barley, wheat, or maize, in my experience, as 

 well as on anything else, and some acorns thrown into and near the 

 entrance of the pipes overnight is an admirable device, for there is no 

 strong-er attraction to wild duck than acorns. 



* " Coombs " are the sprouted germs of the barley which are screened off the malt after 

 drying, and which, owing to their sweetness, wildfowl are very fond of. 



