-DECOYS IN IRELAND. 67 



CHAPTER IV. 



Decoys Their Construction and Management Decoys in Ireland 

 Enemies in a Decoy Foxes Pike Herons Decoy Ducks 

 Mode of Capture Formation of Pipe Use of Dog, and Ferret 

 Hints for Decoyman Decoy in Operation. 



THERE are, to my knowledge, but three Irish De- 

 coys in working order at the present day, namely, 

 Mr. Longfield's, at Longueville, near Mallow, co. 

 Cork ; Lord Desart's, at Desart House, co. Kil- 

 kenny ; and Mr. Webber's, at Athy, co. Kildare. 

 Through the courtesy of the owners, I am enabled 

 to give a few particulars concerning them. Why 

 more decoys are not made and worked in Ireland I 

 do not understand ; as a lucrative amusement, and 

 in a country so admirably adapted by nature, with 

 its abundance of wild waterfowl, they could not fail 

 to succeed. There are many private and necessarily 

 undisturbed meres and pools near vast estuaries 

 and inland lakes (the latter crowded with Duck and 

 Teal) that, with the requisite knowledge, might 

 easily be converted, with little trouble, into suc- 

 cessful decoys. Again, Ireland is so rarely visited 

 by frost that the fowl would seldom be forced to 

 seek the estuaries on account of ice in the decoy 

 pools. 



Longueville. This decoy is not worked with a 



F 2 



