CHAPTER VII. 



THE DECOY -POND. 



" Ergo avidas si forte anates captare libebit, 

 Atque alias liquidis quascunque paludibus ulvae 

 Delectant molles, captique in gurgite pisces 

 Palmipedum genus alitium : torpentia propter 

 Stagnaque velocesque amnes, deducere fossam 

 Perge celer tenui refluentem leniter unda." 



BARG^EUS DE AUCUPIO. 



A DECOY is a place set apart for the enticement, resort, and capture 

 of wild-fowl :* and is simply a pond or small lake, having* one or more 

 semi-circular arms, spanned with nets; the situation of the whole being 1 

 in a retired locality, and surrounded with thickly-planted trees and 

 underwood, f It is contrived for the purpose of alluring 1 wild-fowl to 

 resort there, and, by various stratagems, to entice them up these narrow 

 arms of water : their retreat is then cut off, by the fowler suddenly 

 making his appearance from behind a place of concealment ; when the 

 birds, in their fright, and endeavour to avoid him, rush forward up the 

 curved arm of water, probably thinking to make their escape at the 

 other end, but ultimately find themselves enclosed in a tunnel-net. 



A decoy is one of the most ornamental acquisitions to a private 

 landed estate that can well be imagined, and at all times presents 

 an object of amusement and attraction. When properly managed, 

 and kept strictly quiet, it makes an admirable nursery for wild-fowl, 

 and may also materially assist in the preservation of game. 



It is also a pleasing and satisfactory resort, in summer, for the 



* In legal language it is termed a " vivarium." Vide 2 Coke's Institutes, p. 100 ; 

 and Holt's Rep,, p. 14. 



f Lubbock gives the following definition : " A decoy is a sequestered pool, with 

 curving ditches, and of depth of sixteen or eighteen inches of water, dug from the 

 main water, and covered with a net ; and that the fowl are taken by alluring them 

 from the main water into these fatal retreats." 



