DECOYS FOR WILD FOWL. 



221 



never frig-litenccl, tlic little clucks are tame, and 

 will run to meet tlie hand that has always fed them. 



As soon as the young ducks are strong, then 

 shift them, old one, coop and all, to some little, 

 Avarmly-sheltered shallow pool — on no account to 

 deep water; and then, when they begin to get 

 well into their first plumage, let the old duck 

 out. Her wing by that time will have begun to 

 re-moult the pulled-out flight feathers, and she will 

 soon fly as well as ever ; but she w^ill not desert 

 her brood, when there are plenty of pools to 

 hold them. Deep water always kills the greater 

 number of the wild-bred young broods upon it. 

 They are seized with and die of cramp, or Avhere 

 there are pike, they are eaten. 



In the first instance, take all wild ducks' nests, 

 however near the newly-made decoy ponds, for 

 the following reason. The old duck never had 

 looked for water where the new pools w^ere, but, 

 when she w^as a wild bird, she took her brood 

 to the harbour some two miles ofi", or to some 

 swamps in the tidal way near it, where everything 

 was instantly destroyed by what the Glohe news- 

 paper so properly termed the invading '^scamps'' 

 of the vicinity. 



