TRICKS OF DECOY MY.N. 221 



best to watch the birds. The general season for catch- 

 ing is from the latter end of October until February. 

 The taking of them earlier is prohibited by the Act 10 

 George 11. c. 32, which forbids it from June 1st to Oc- 

 tober 1st, under a penalty of five shillings for each bird 

 destroyed in that space. Formerly it was customary to 

 have in the fens an annual driving of young ducks be- 

 fore they took wing. Numbers of people assembled, 

 who beat a vast tract and forced the birds into a net 

 placed on the spot where the sport was to terminate. 

 In this destructive sport upwards of a hundred dozen 

 have been taken at once. This practice, being supposed 

 detrimental, has been abolished by Act of Parliament. 

 A decoy in some seasons is astonishingly lucrative. In 

 1795 the Tillingham decoy, in Essex, at that time in 

 the occupation of jNIr. Mascall, netted, after every ex- 

 pense, upwards of 800/., and the only birds taken were 

 duck and mallard. In 1799, 10,000 head of widgeon, 

 teal, and wild duck, were caught in a decoy belonging 

 to the Eev. Bate Dudley, in Essex. 



The tricks which the decoy-men employ to destroy the 

 haunts of the birds in each other's ponds are various, 

 and as well calculated to produce the mischievous effects 

 they intend as can well be devised : such as putting a 

 wounded bird or two into the pond. Not a bird mil pipe 

 mitil they are removed ; and the natural shyness of the 

 bird is so increased by the pain of his wound, that it takes 

 sometimes two or three days to secure him and restore 

 tmn([iullity. A second manoeuvre is thrusting a feather 

 through the nostrils of a wild fowl and launching it into 

 the decoy ; here again not a fowl can be caught until 

 this deformed stranger is got rid of. A third, and per- 

 haps the most decisive, is starting train oil into the 



