DECOYS FOR WILD FOWL. 199 



precaution in regard to his own piece of burning 

 peat ; so, knowing that this jpeat affair was of no 

 sort of use, I winked at Lord Cravenj and we 

 both put our fires out, kiughing, at the same time, 

 to ourselves when we did so. When these burnino- 

 pieces -of peat were given to us, I remember 

 whispering to my host, that if, as he (the decoy 

 man) said, ^^ the smoking turf was to prevent the 

 ducks from smelling our breath," we were all 

 expected to hold the burning peat close to our 

 lips ; if the young ladies were to have one con- 

 siderable sized piece, I supposed the old decoy 

 man would put his own head into a 2^eat stack, 

 as there must be degrees of offence in which the 

 breath should assail the birds ; so the whole affair 

 was nonsense from one end to the other. It was a 

 funny idea, I thought, to see these j^retty faces 

 inhaling smoke, and no more smoke than that 

 old man, the sigh from one lip and the rude breath 

 from the other deemed, even in their terrific effects, 

 to need no more disguise the one than the other. 

 The end of this peat-smoking farce was, that we 

 caught some ducks with all our artificial fumes 

 frustrated by common consent. 



In lying by moonlight under a very little bank, 



