DECOYS FOR WILD FOWL. 223 



dog alone. When once sent upon a difficult cluty, 

 in wliicli a man cannot direct liis dog, man should 

 be silent and stilly and interfere no more. 



In a very short time my dog came over the liill 

 with the winged mallard alive in his moutli. The 

 bird, as he could not fly, was walking off 

 straight in the direction of the river Stour, nearly 

 two miles off, and leaving a couple of acres of 

 water behind him, into the edge of which he 

 had fallen. 



This made an impression on me, but shortly 

 after, at the same place, the thing occurred again. 

 A w^inged mallard who had fallen, in a second 

 instance, instead of seeking the pool to dive in 

 which was close to him, also set off on foot, in 

 hope to reach the accustomed and well-remembered 

 river. This suggested to me that all wild ducks, 

 nesting, as they always do, far away from waters 

 of their haunt, would not. come with their young 

 to the new sites opened out to them, but go 

 to tho.se they had been accustomed to, at whatever 

 distance. My conjecture was right ; so, following 

 it up, an opportunity occurred by hand-rearing to 

 make tlie rising generation of fowl learn that the 

 safest place of all Avas the ^' tarn," or the ponds 



