52 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. 



is in your favour. They start the right way at once, and that is up the 

 pipe. If the wind blow into a pipe's mouth, the ducks will fly against it 

 when they first rise, and so often come out of the pipe, unless the ditch 

 be so low and narrow as to be quite sheltered. Should such be the 

 case, however, the pipe is a bad one in every way, both for enticing the 

 birds up it, or for driving them when in it. 



Ducks always swim head to wind if they can, as then their feathers do 

 not ruffle as when they drift with it. 



They also rest head to wind when on land for the same reason. 



Hence, outside the pipe that the wind blows downwards and partly 

 across, the birds are more or less facing its entrance. They are then near 

 at hand to the Decoyman, and so readily perceive the dog when he appears, 

 or food is thrown into the pipe. 



This is the case whether they be the tame Decoys or the wild ducks. 



On some occasions, such as in a strong breeze, the fowl will be 

 seen resting just inside the pipe under its net on the landing opposite the 

 screens. 



Many a good catch is made by finding them there, and suddenly 

 surprising them up the pipe by appearing behind them at the head show 

 place. 



For this chance ahuays approach and reconnoitre a pipe carefully on 

 first entering a Decoy, looking through the furthest screen from the pipe's 

 mouth in the /irst instance, as then, if any fowl are in the ditch, they can 

 be driven up by the Decoyman running round to the head show or one 

 of the dog-jumps, and so getting behind them. 



It should be carefully arranged in all Decoys that the wind can blow 

 unchecked slantingly down the pipes from their offsides, opposite the 

 screens — I mean the wind that is suitable to each pipe when it is worked. 



If a bank of high trees are standing thickly over the screens, the wind 

 recoils from them in a current, and so whirls into the pipe's mouth and 

 pond. It will then, of course, carry your scent with it to the fowl, and 

 quite spoil for the time any chance of a catch. 



This is a frequent, though often unsuspected, cause of the failure of 

 what may otherwise be an excellently planned pipe. 



When approaching a Decoy, be careful to enter its precincts so as 

 not to get any fowl dead to leeward of you ; for this reason four hand-gates 



