THE OLD DECOY 



The dog or the fox, if a fox was used, moved quietly 

 to and fro for a minute or two, as the wild duck came 

 nearer — the Berkeley fox used to wave his tail in a 

 manner peculiarly and fatally fascinating to the birds — 

 and then turned, made up the drain, and after seeing 

 that the fowl were following him, and were well within 

 the netting, disappeared. He had played his part and 

 joined his master. It is a strange thing that the wild- 

 fowl, although in reality inwardly alarmed at the dog 

 in front of them, or that yet more dreaded foe the fox, 

 almost invariably followed in pursuit of the vanished 

 animal, and were presently so far involved that their 

 fate was certain. On a sudden the decoy-man stepped 

 from behind one of his reed-screens and showed himself. 

 He was between the wild duck and the open water, and 

 they no more dared to try for safety that way than they 

 could burrow into the earth. Suddenly, too, they dis- 

 covered, as they rose, that between them and the free 

 sky was some terrible-looking stuff — the netting — which 

 might wreak them harm. There was nothing for it — 

 they must go straight on. They hurried on and on, 

 fear lending them swiftness ; the pipe and its covering 

 grew ever smaller ; until at length, frantic and blind 

 with terror, the unfortunate fowl were safely snared in 

 the pocket or funnel-net at the far end, where the decoy- 

 man presently found them, wrung their necks, extri- 

 cated them, and departed to make preparations for 

 another campaign against their fellows. 



Sometimes the fowl were decoyed by the tame ducks 

 alone ; sometimes, as I have shown, by a dog or a fox 

 in conjunction with decoy ducks. Sometimes the dog 

 was trained to appear at the mouth of the decoy, after 

 the wild duck had sailed up, and so frighten them into 

 the funnel-net at the far end. The result was usually 

 the same — a bag, sometimes small, sometimes good, 



. 19 



