82 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



ment of man or dog through them. The long back 

 screens may be made in a similar manner and of 

 the same height as the shorter ones in front of them. 

 The space between the short screens where they 

 overlap (some three feet in width), should be filled 

 up near the ground by small wooden hurdles or 

 leaps, two feet high, and with rushes fixed in and 

 out of their bars ; in fact, small shelters. 



Over each little leap bounds the decoyman's dog, 

 then, frisking round the front of the screen just 

 before the fowl, pops back out of sight to his master 

 over the next leap ; the decoyman moving on from 

 screen to screen till he has enticed the birds far 

 enough up the pipe to suit his purpose. It is this 

 sudden appearance of the animal, as he skips into 

 view, and again out of sight, that so fascinates and 

 attracts the fowl that they follow him. 



The screens should be placed as shown in the 

 plan of decoy pipe, with their upper edges just 

 below the height of an ordinary man without his 

 hat, about 5^ feet, and in length 12 feet. The 

 lower they are, the less like a walled enclosure they 

 will make the pipe seem, and the less it will be 

 avoided by the fowl. They should be 4 feet from 

 the ditch. The covering of the pipe should be of 

 net ; wire shows too hard and black against the sky. 

 At the pipe's mouth the meshes can be 4^ inches 

 square, a dozen yards up its length 3^, at the bend 

 i\, and at the tail an inch only. 



The pipe should be 25 or even 30 feet wide at 

 its entrance, and 1 2 feet high to the top of the arch. 



The height may be one-third less by the time 

 the bend is reached, and from thence it gradually 



