DECOYS FOR WILD FOWL. 197 



sufficiently open to tlieir selection and use all 

 day. 



There is an expression very commonly used, 

 it consists in the word ^^ decoy-duck." I believe 

 such birds so-called were used by the ancients 

 in decoys, because I have found birds so called 

 kept by some old decoy men in the present day ; 

 but in the decoy for taking ducks there should 

 he no decoy hircl, nor half-tame birds whatever. 

 It is best to be without them. In the olden time, 

 men were not so wise in some things as they are 

 now, though in many they might be infinitely 

 more jolly than they are at present; and they 

 used to attribute to ducks less sense or cunning 

 than they really possessed, and more natural gifts 

 than Nature ever gave them. Thus they attributed 

 to waterfowl the keenest possible sense of smell, 

 and thought they could wind or scent humanity 

 when behind the screen of the decoy, if the wind 

 blew from the man towards the fowl. It was this 

 erroneous supposition that induced the ancients 

 to have four pipes to tlieir decoys, as before 

 explained, so as to suit each wind. 



This power of smelling was a myth, like many 

 of the dicta of the ancient writers on natural 



