DECOYS FOR WILD FOWL. 219 



sistccl all detention, even to forgetfulness of their 

 young. 



If a cluck can be found, and her time and 

 method of sitting on her nest watched, and she 

 is visited just about the time when she is hatch- 

 ing, her nest will generally be far from any 

 water, and in the heath or furze. When first 

 alarmed by the approach of man, she will flutter 

 along the ground in an attemjot to lead the sup- 

 2^osed pursuer from, her young. Before she is dis- 

 turbed, two or three purse-nets should be set in 

 low places, or in such positions as she would be 

 likely to cross in her designing retreat, and into 

 one of these, if properly set, she is almost sure 

 to go. 



Having taken her thus alive, at a time when 

 maternal affection is at the ftill, pull out the flight 

 feathers from one wing to prevent her flying 

 away, if by any chance she should escape her 

 coop, and then put her into a cooj) narrowly 

 barred to prevent her squeezing through, and put 

 a board or ^^ crate" in a square in front of the 

 coop, fitting close at both sides. A crate a couple 

 of yards long, by the breadth of the cooj) wide, 

 and a foot high; is quite suflicient to j^i'cvent the 



