Wild Ducks and Duck Decoying. 221 



it. Now as to the actual working. If the 

 birds are sluggish the trained dog cleverly 

 works them from the bank, and either drives or 

 attracts them by curiosity to the pipe to be 

 worked, being also aided by the decoy ducks 

 and induced to stay by finding corn scattered 

 about. By skilful manipulation the fowl are 

 worked up the pipe, the dog trotting in and out 

 of the reed-screens and luring them further and 

 further away. Soon they have made sufficient 

 progress to enable the man to show himself, and 

 this he does at the same time waving his hat. 

 Retreat to the pool is cut off, and the terrified 

 birds rush up the pipe only to find themselves 

 in the narrowing tunnel-net which terminates it. 

 This is at once detached, and the final scene is 

 the wringing of the ducks' necks by the decoy 

 man. As all the pipes curve to the right the 

 decoying is unseen from the pool, and one 

 set of fowl can be u worked " whilst others 

 are sleeping or preening themselves on the 

 lake. Further aids of concealment for the work- 

 ing of the decoy other than those enumerated are 

 banks of earth and brushwood running parallel 

 to the palings. 



As sportsmen would rather shoot fowl than 

 snare them, the decoy is mostly interesting now- 

 adays to naturalists and antiquarians. To show 

 their value, however, in times gone by, it may be 

 mentioned that a corporation has been known to 



