296 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



Successful Duck-decoying can only be carried on 

 by the fortunate combination of several important 

 essentials. (1) Perfect quietness upon the body of 

 water, large or small, to which the birds come to 

 spend the day. (2) A good set of well-kept pipes, 

 each trending to a cardinal point of the compass, 

 for it is absolutely necessary when a pipe is worked 

 that the wind shall be blowing from the tail of it; 

 for Ducks always swim and fly with their heads to 

 the wind. The pipes are, for this reason, named 

 from the direction in which they point. (3) A well- 

 trained, intelligent dog of small size, quick action, 

 and silent habits. If it resembles a fox in colour 

 so much the better, but this qualification is not 

 now considered so essential as it was in olden 

 times, when the decoy-men attached so much im- 

 portance to it that they tied the skin of a fox on 

 to a dog's back, and allowed the brush to trail upon 

 the ground. (4) A number of well- trained lure 

 Ducks that will come to the decoy-man's whistle or 

 the sight of his dog, and swim steadily up the 

 pipe ; and last, and most important of all, a man of 

 more than average industry, intelligence, and skill. 



In order to make this chapter as complete as 

 possible, from a pictorial point of view, we jour- 

 neyed twice to East Anglia ; once, when the wild- 

 fowl were being actually caught, and it was impos- 

 sible for us to photograph the mouth of the pipe 

 without frightening the fowl away ; and again in 

 summer-time, when we could go anywhere without 

 fear of doing harm. 



A decoy pipe is a ditch shaped somewhat like 

 a cow's horn or an ear trumpet, and is sufficiently 

 curved to make it quite impossible for anything 

 going on at one end to be seen from the other. 

 It is about one hundred and fifty feet in length, 



