THE HISTORY OF DECOYS. 35 



another have copied that absurd notion. And what is more astonish- 

 ing- than all is, that Mr. Wells, in his " History of the Fens," is 

 equally guilty with his predecessors of this popular error. He ob- 

 serves on the art of decoying 1 wild-ducks :* " Sometimes, however, 

 from their extreme shyness and caution, the tame duck does not 

 succeed in trepanning 1 others : in such cases, the decoyman employs 

 a small dog, which, by swimming about amongst the rushes and 

 reeds, and alarming the wild-fowl, drives them up the mouth of the 

 net" I 



It is possible that Mr. Wells may never have been within the 

 grounds of a decoy ; but certainly he was not familiar with the art of 

 decoying wild-fowl, or he would not have asserted that the dog either 

 " swims about the rushes," " alarms the wild-fowl," or " drives them 

 up the mouth of the net." For, in truth, the dog does neither : he is 

 not sent into the water at all during the operation ; instead of 

 alarming the birds, every possible precaution is taken to avoid such 

 a proceeding ; and as to driving the fowl into the pipe, it is never 

 attempted they must be enticed by the dog, not driven. The only 

 time of year when they can be driven is when they are moulting, 

 and unable to fly a season during which decoys are not exercised. 



The errors of Wells on this head are all copied by Watson (with- 

 out acknowledgment), in his " History of Wisbech/' in reference to 

 a decoy at Leverington.f 



The term " rising," as applied to a decoy, implies that the wild- 

 fowl leave it, and go elsewhere ; and this term has been too frequently 

 misunderstood by those who imagined the birds were captured by 

 night, instead of by day ; and they have supposed that, because wild- 

 fowl feed at night, they were captured in the decoy at night, and that 

 the " rising of the decoy" meant the time to commence operations ? 

 whereas it implies the very reverse. 



But of all the glaring absurdities ever published upon the subject, 

 none are so simply ridiculous as the article under the head " Decoy," in 

 the " Pantalogia."! The imaginative author of that article starts off 

 with the false notion that at the rising of the decoy, in the evening, the 

 sport commences; and gives his readers to understand that a net covers 

 the entire pond, reed screens and all ! He also says the wild-fowl pass 

 over the screens, and become completely surrounded by the suspended 



* Wells, p. 447. 



t Vide Watson's History of Wisbech, p. 471. 



J Pantalogia ; published 1813. 



