DECOYS. 



WOODEN. 



Although there are conditions under which decoys 

 are not needed for wildfowl shooting, yet usually these 

 are essential to success. The man who proposes to 

 gun regularly must have decoys. 



The commonest forms of these are merely wooden 

 blocks trimmed, or whittled, to the shape of a bird's 

 body, to which is attached a separate piece of wood 

 representing the neck and head. Such decoys are 

 painted to imitate the color of the bird's plumage, are 

 weighted below with a strip of lead or iron, to keep 

 them right side up, and to a staple driven into the part 

 of the block representing the bird's lower breast is tied 

 a line running to the weight or anchor that rests on 

 the bottom and holds the decoy in position. From 

 these primitive decoys, which the professional gunners 

 along the shore often make for themselves, and which, 

 in fact, seem often as attractive to the ducks as much 

 more expensive ones, there have developed decoys fla* 

 beneath, and with a wooden keel an inch or two deep, 

 shod with metal; decoys of cork, also usually flat be- 

 neath ; others made of two blocks of cedar, hollowed 

 out and pinned together by wooden nails, and finally, 

 decoys made of canvas, which can be inflated, and 

 from which the air is expelled when they are not in 



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