CHAPTER X. 



THE PIPER. 



" Tho' gay and winning in my gait, 



I'm treacherous as the viper : 

 Follow me, and, sure as fate, 

 You'll have to pay the piper." 



THE AUTHOR. 



A Doa trained to the decoy is called a " piper," and is the most 

 effectual instrument used by the fowler in this occupation. Thus we 

 find that no legitimate sport can be successfully employed in con- 

 nection with taking wild-birds, and more especially water-fowl, with- 

 out the aid of one or more of those noble animals which serve mankind 

 with truer sincerity than any other living- creature on the face 

 of the earth. It is the very nature of the dog to be faithful to his 

 master, regardless of all consequences to himself. If he appears 

 unfaithful, his heart is aching because his endeavours fail to please. 

 The dog forgives his master any injury, and in return for kindnesses 

 shown him, will lay down his life for his master's sake. Kindness in 

 training a dog always succeeds ; but whipping and cruelty break the 

 spirit, spoil the animal, and leave him always in fear of the whip, 

 whereby he performs his part with timidity, consequently less satis- 

 factorily to himself or his master. 



The part a piper has to perform at a decoy is as remarkable as it 

 is amusing, and has been the subject of much curious speculation. 

 Without the assistance of a piper, the efforts of the decoyman are 

 generally unavailing. It is natural enough for those who are strangers 

 to the art, to imagine that the dog by some means or other drives the 

 birds within the meshes of the fowler's net ; but, in fact, it is the 

 very reverse the piper actually entices either by winning ways or 

 by exciting an antipathy towards himself large numbers of wild-fowl 

 to follow him up a ditch of water covered over with a net ; when 

 their retreat is then cut off by the sudden appearance of the fowler 



