BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 145 



field of sport, it was learned that decoys were of 

 more importance than ever in the taking of wild- 

 fowl. As the birds grew fewer they became 

 more wary, so wary in fact that the sportsman 

 without decoys to aid him in enticing the ducks 

 within gunshot had about as much chance of ob- 

 taining one as the fisherman has of catching a 

 trout on a bare hook. 



While shooting was in its infancy, it was the 

 custom to employ only live decoys. But as the 

 sport grew more popular, as the shot-gun im- 

 proved and became sufficiently cheap for any 

 person to own one, the demand for live decoy- 

 birds increased in proportion. Soon the supply 

 failed to equal the call for them, and thus it hap- 

 pened that wooden images gradually took their 

 place. It is safe to say that now more than 90 

 per cent, of all duck decoys are products of the 

 manufacturer. On the other hand, so popular 

 has become the shooting of water-fowl and shore- 

 birds, so numerous are the devotees of the sport,, 

 and, furthermore, so advantageous to the sports- 

 men are call-birds, that live decoys are still uti- 

 lized by tens of thousands. 



In the case of shorebirds, such as yellowlegs- 

 and black-breasted plover, species which own the 

 most trusting dispositions of all game-birds, 

 only manufactured decoys are resorted to. But 

 this type of game stands in a class by itself. Its 

 dominant instinct, that of gregariousness, 



