DUCKS. 201 



bringing his game to book than many people know. This 

 is chiefly because decoys and flight ponds are rare, having 

 ceased to be profitable establishments to the man who works 

 them for mere money gain in a majority of instances. And 

 sportsmen of the old school who could take an honest interest 

 in and enjoy the management and working of a well-fre- 

 quented pond are, it seems, becoming scarcer and scarcer. 

 There is not one sporting estate in a hundred where a decoy 

 >can be seen at the present time, though good and convenient 

 sheets of water are numerous. Two chief kinds of decoys 

 are used : the first, for pochard, is called a flight pond, and 

 has nets fastened to tall, stout poles, twenty-eight or thirty 

 feet long, round its margin. At the bottom of each pole is 

 fixed a box filled with sufficiently heavy stones to elevate the 

 poles and nets the instant an iron peg is withdrawn, which 

 retains the nets and poles flat upon the reeds, small willow- 

 boughs, or furze. Within the nets are small pens made of 

 reeds three or four feet high, for the reception of the birds 

 that strike against the nets and fall down. Such is the form 

 and shortness of the wings of the pochard, that they cannot 

 ascend again from these little enclosures. When all is ready, 

 the dun-birds are roused from their pond, and as all wild 

 fowl rise against the wind, the poles in that quarter are un- 

 pinned, flying up with the nets at the instant the birds begin 

 to leave the water; they are thus beaten down by 'scores. 

 This is not, perhaps, a proceeding which gives much oppor- 

 tunity for the display of great skill or science, certainly 

 ranking below the decoy proper, wherein wild fowl are 

 enticed up a covered " fleet," the utmost caution and care 

 being required from first to last to prevent them from 

 becoming suspicious or doubling back on their captors. 



Mr. Christopher Davies, who has just published a delight- 

 ful little volume for boys, entitled " Peter Penniless, Game- 

 keeper and Gentleman," thus happily describes the appearance 

 of the pond. He says : " They were now in a great bay, 

 which was as secluded as it is possible to imagine. The 



