298 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



seventeen or eighteen feet wide at its mouth, and 

 gradually tapering to a couple of feet at its tail. 

 The water in it is about fifteen inches deep at the 

 wide end, and three or four at the narrow one. If 

 a spring or small stream should empty its waters 

 into the pipe, it is considered an advantage, as wild- 

 fowl swim better against a slight current. 



The pipe is covered by iron hoops, commencing at 

 the mouth with one having a span of from twenty- 

 five to thirty feet, and a height, from the centre of 

 the arch to the water, of something like fifteen feet ; 

 the hoops gradually diminishing in size as they 

 approach the tail of the pipe to about two feet in 

 diameter. The whole is covered by a hand-spun 

 hemp net, with a two-inch mesh, well coated with 

 tar and tan. I was assured by the decoy-man that 

 one of these nets will last twenty years. Some 

 pipes are covered by a four-inch mesh at the 

 mouth, and for some distance down, and then one 

 of half the diameter. 



One decoy we examined was covered with gal- 

 vanised wire, which had been treated in the same 

 way as a hemp net. Some decoy-men have an 

 objection to wire netting, on account of its tendency 

 to hum in a breeze of wind, and thus frighten 

 the Ducks away ; however, the man we visited 

 experienced no difficulty of this kind. 



At the tail of the decoy pipe is a detachable 

 net from twelve to fifteen feet long, held open by 

 hoops two feet in diameter, and lying on the 

 ground. In some cases a kind of hopper is made 

 close by the end of the receiving net, to throw the 

 dead fowl into. 



On either side of the mouth of the pipe the 

 banks slope gently down to the water's edge, and 

 are flat and roomy, especially on the side where 



