DECOYS FOR WILD FOWL. 227 



not live. I tlierefore take the first nests, and 

 deal with them artificially. If the hatches arc 

 small in nmnber, one duck, or one hen, accord- 

 ing to the size of the latter, will take two or 

 three broods, if of the same age or within a 

 day or tw^o of the age of her ow^n, and the 

 other ducks so deprived of their young, their 

 flight feathers in one wing extracted, are put 

 into a small pool enclosed with wire. If this were 

 not done, they Avould go to the coop, if within 

 their reach, and call away the young ones from 

 the bird appointed to bring them up. To prevent 

 this, they are put into what I term ^Hhe prison." 

 In no very long time they forget tlieir young, 

 and re-moult tlie extracted, not ciitj flight feathers. 

 The mallards have had free access to them, they 

 are impregnated, and when of themselves they fly 

 out of prison, they are prepared for a second nest. 



I have been all my life, or the greater part of 

 the last years of it, trying to teach this to my 

 friends who have estates and manors, and width 

 of acres, moss, or moors, at the present time lying- 

 fallow from all that is either useful, remunerative, 

 or amusing. Somehow or other, ^^ they don't seem 



to see it," and somehow or other they dont alivays 



Q 2 



