DECOYS AND THEIR WORKING 123 



seeking to attach its origin to the word decoy. Some, 

 not unreasonably, have believed duco to be the root 

 of the word ; others have gone one better and added 

 the Dutch coy, a cage, to the former word. Nuttall's 

 Dictionary, I find, gives its students the choice of two 

 derivations. One of them, ' from de, dam, and coy, 

 quiet,' is quite fanciful, if not ridiculous. The other 

 ' from duck-coy, i.e. duck-cage or trap,' is only half 

 correct. Briefly, decoy is simply the Dutch eende- 

 coy (a duck-cage or enclosure), minus een. The con- 

 traction is a natural one. As the device originated 

 in Holland, so did the name of the device. 



