DECOYS FOR WILD FOWL. 201 



liastily turn back, or bolt off in some contrary 

 direction. 



Nothing more is needed than this fact to prove 

 tlie fallacy of supposing* that birds have the faculty 

 of sniffing the approximation of a foe. 



Immense care must be observed, in a decoy for 

 taking fowl, to keep the paths by the ''screen" 

 a couple of inches or more deep in the atoms of 

 tan from a tan-yard, or with sawdust, or very 

 fine sand ; for ducks can hear with the keenest 

 discrimination of sound, and if down- wind of the 

 decoy man, of course they hear much better than 

 if they are iip-unnd ; and this it is that has led 

 to the delusion in vulgar minds that the birds 

 smell the men out, wdiile really they have dis- 

 tinguished some almost impalpable sound, that has 

 not been noticed by the man from Avhom it 

 proceeded. 



If in a decoy you take a duck once called a 

 decoy bird, the tamer the decoy-duck is, the sooner 

 he comprehends man's trick, and ''turns up an 

 eye " at it for the future when needed to lead 

 to the pipe again. These decoy-ducks, tlius awake 

 to the place of capture, will, by keej^ing away 

 themselves, prevent more ignorant birds from 



