CHAPTER IX. 



THE DECOY-DUCKS. 



" The devil would never have had such numbers, had he not used some as decoys 

 to ensnare others." Government of the Tongue. 



EQUALLY indispensable to assist the fowler in his operations, as 

 appurtenant to the decoy itself, are the decoy-ducks. Their constant 

 presence on the pond attracts the attention of wild-fowl which chance 

 to be flying- high in the air in that direction, and induces them the 

 more readily to droop their flight, and yield to the enticements 

 offered ; the presence of a number of their own tribe being a sufficient 

 guarantee of the supposed safety of the retreat. And when once a 

 flight of wild-fowl have tasted the sweets of the decoy, and been 

 allowed to remain there a few hours without being disturbed, they 

 are almost certain to return again on the next or another day : this, 

 then, is their first step on the road to ruin ; for the next time they 

 come, if a fitting opportunity offers, the fowler calls his decoy-ducks, 

 to lure them on another step ; and they approach catervatim the 

 mouth of the pipe, where they find abundance of tail-corn drifting on 

 the surface : and, by such enticements, they are induced to return 

 daily to the decoy, and to follow the decoy-ducks in their movements, 

 step by step, until at last they go a step too far, and find themselves 

 within the fowler's trammel. 



It is a mistake to suppose that the decoy-ducks perform any 

 cunning part ; they only do that which is most natural to them, viz., 

 go where food awaits them, and for that reason they obey the call of 

 the decoyer, and swim up the pipe to which they are invited, the 

 wild ones following them. Blome erroneously attributes their cap- 

 ture to the subtilty of the decoy-ducks.* 



* " I shall now speak of decoys, by which means great store of ducks and teal are 

 drawn into a snare, and that by the subtilty of a few of their own kind, which from 

 the egg are trained up to come to hand for the same purpose." Blome's Gentle- 

 Recreation. 



