304 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



The screens are made of dead reeds, and are 

 five or six inches thick. They are held close 

 together by wooden rails or galvanised wire. The 

 decoy-man told us that the latter is far better, as 

 it does not collect and hold the water behind it, to 

 rot the reeds, like a wooden rail. 



Stuck through the inner or zigzag screens, 

 commanding a good view of the pipe mouth and 

 lake, are several dagger-like pieces of wood, a foot 

 in length and an inch and a quarter wide, which, 

 when turned on one side, open a small vertical 

 slit in the reed screen, through which the decoy- 

 man makes his survey. 



All the paths are swept clear of twigs and 

 leaves, and covered with a thick layer of sawdust, 

 so that the decoy-man's footsteps may not be 

 heard. 



The lure Ducks that are at liberty in and 

 around the mouth of the pipe number about twenty, 

 and are very similar in appearance to Wild Duck. 

 They are only fed in the evening, after the wild 

 ones have left for the mud-flats, except at such 

 times as when the decoy-man is at work catching 

 fowl, when he flings bruised oats, buckwheat, 

 maize, malt grains, or acorns into the pipe. 



As soon as the lure Ducks hear the decoy-man's 

 low whistle, or see his dog, they know there will 

 be some grain floating down the pipe, and they 

 swim up the steadier the better, for these Ducks 

 are so trained that as soon as the decoy-man 

 appears at the head show place, and the wild birds 

 rise and fly up the pipe, they quietly swim down 

 again towards the lake. 



Wildfowl are taken between October and March ; 

 and during a hard frost the decoy-man puts on his 

 sea-boots at midnight, and, taking a long-handled 



