HISTORY OF DECOYS. tgi 



Ducks and Teal have been taken at one time." As an instance of how soon 

 wildfowl learn to discriminate between real clanger and the reverse, I 

 can say that I have seen the Ducks at Longueville sitting composedly 

 on the Decoy, within sight and sound of carts and waggons passing 

 along the adjacent road, a distance of but lOO paces, and though the 

 drivers of such vehicles can see the fowl, and mischievously crack their 

 whips to alarm them, their efforts to rise the birds prove futile. 



Doncraile Court. — The residence of Viscount Doneraile, close to the 

 town of Doneraile, and 6 miles NE. of Mallow. There are the remains 

 of a first-class Decoy here, though no records exist of its being put ever 

 to active use. 



It was constructed by the second Viscount Doneraile, grandfather of 

 the present owner of the estate, and much costly masonry was used in its 

 construction, some of which is yet to be seen. 



The outline of the Decoy can still be traced, and I have been able 

 on a close inspection to determine the position of the four pipes. The 

 remains of the Decoyman's hut are also visible, together with the channels 

 cut for flooding the pool from the River Aubeg, that flows close by its 

 side. 



The Decoy is placed in a dense thicket in the park, and some 400 

 yards distant from the mansion. 



The park at Doneraile abounds in wild scenery and magnificent 

 timber ; indeed. Lord Doneraile once told me that it used to be his 

 boast, that some years ago he could point out, in his beautiful grounds, 

 specimens of all well-known British trees, as well as many rare ones, that, 

 taken collectively, could not, he was ready to wager, be surpassed in size 

 and symmetry of form and foliage, on any other estate. 



County Down. 

 Decoys in use. Decoys not in use. 



None. I Lough Beg. 



Thompson, in his ' Natural History of Ireland,' 185 1, before alluded 

 to, writes : — 



" Meadows on the margin of Lough Beg, connected with Lough 



