DECOYS FOR WILD FOWL. 195 



gazes wliicli enables tlie first man to see if 

 the fowl follow the clog to tlie pipe within taking 

 distance, and then, if they do, he makes a sign 

 to the man who works the dog, to '^show'^ behind 

 the fowl at the rio'ht moment. Sometimes the 



a 



ducks are sleepy and too idle to be decoyed; 

 sometimes, from some reason or other, they are 

 shy and too wary ; sometimes they are slack, and 

 come a little w^ay and pause. In the latter case, 

 the man at the squinnie hole makes a sign to 

 the man w^orking.the dog, and the dog is made 

 to repeat his first entrance before going on for 

 another, until the birds come on or decline to do 

 so altogether. 



If no fresh fowl, or ^^ foreign flights," happen 

 to be on the pool at the time at which ^^a take" 

 is designed; those that are there may consist of 

 some of those ducks who have not gone in with 

 tlie rest far enough up the pij)e to be captured, 

 but who have had time to turn back in the face 

 of the man attempting to scare them. These ducks 

 may remember the dog as the cause of their 

 being frightened, and decline to follov/ him. 



I remember one day returning from hunting 



at Berkeley Castle by the ^^old decoy" (the then 



o2 



