40 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



not intimately acquainted with the habits of water-fowl) are the 

 direct means of encouraging- them to stay and frequent that parti- 

 cular part of the coast ; and, as a general rule, the more decoys there 

 are in the neighbourhood, the greater are the numbers of wild-fowl 

 on and about the coast, marshes, and lakes. Notwithstanding the 

 great captures which are sometimes made, a decoy is nevertheless a 

 preserve for wild-fowl ; and as it is necessarily situated in a very 

 secluded part, when once a number of water-fowl have discovered it, 

 they invariably visit it at regular intervals, frequently enticing- swarms 

 of followers to the same delusive repose; until the fowler, finding the 

 numbers considerable, proceeds to put in operation his ingenious 

 contrivances, and often with such success as to take in the course of 

 one hour several hundred birds. The proceedings are conducted with 

 so much caution and such profound silence, that were there as many 

 more birds upon the open water of the decoy as those allured into 

 the fowler's fatal snare, they would be quite unconscious of the whole- 

 sale and deliberate slaughter of their companions which may be going 

 forward in a remote corner of the decoy : the unsuspecting, which 

 may be revelling in the rich dabblings of the grassy mounds and 

 shallow bottoms of the pond, are screened from view of the others 

 by thickly-planted underwood, reeds, and other contrivances. 



A succession of mild winters, combined with the facts before 

 stated as to the drainage of fen-lands, have been the cause of many 

 decoys being done away with, and others remaining unemployed ; 

 whilst some have been entirely cleared of the pipes and apparatus : 

 and the occasional pairs of ducks and small flights of wild-fowl which 

 alight in the old decoys are now despatched by the shoulder-gun, 

 and brought to hand by the retriever or water-spaniel. Still there 

 are yet remaining, and probably always will be, several well-conducted 

 and carefully-watched decoys in various parts of this country ; though 

 the author ventures to predict, from the experiences of late years, 

 there will be only few kept for profit; but rather exclusively, and as a 

 valuable appurtenant to a gentleman's estate : a preserve for wild- 

 fowl affording amusement to the proprietor and his friends, and 

 always remaining an object of interest and curiosity to strangers. 

 And, certainly, a decoy is a far more agreeable feature in a park than 

 a rookery ; in addition to which, the sport attending a decoy extends 

 over many months, whilst the murderous onslaught upon the rooks 

 lasts but a few weeks at most. There is much opportunity for the 

 exercise of skill and pleasing excitement attached to the one, but 



