DECOYS AND HOW TO USE THEM 53 



birds, clamouring loudly at their uncomfortable position 

 aloft. 



In Holland, we have been told, they use trained drakes, 

 which fly up to the wild ones and lure them down to an igno- 

 minious death, although, when there, we have never had the 

 pleasure, if so we may term it, of being initiated into the 

 secrets of this particular device. 



The huttier system of the French, with their decoy birds 

 staked down in lines, is so well-known, and has been before so 

 admirably described by far abler pens, that there is no need to 

 touch upon it. 



Having shortly commented upon the decoys more generally 

 in use, the next point is how to lay them out. 



On land this is easy enough, as the only thing of any im- 

 portance to be remembered is (and this applies equally as 

 much to the water) to place all your birds head to wind. If 

 the reader requires a reason for this, let him visit the nearest 

 farmyard and watch any ducks that may be in a place exposed 

 to the wind. 



The whole tribe has a great dislike to have their feathers 

 ruffled, which an aft wind invariably does. Stales therefore 

 must not all be sitting up nor all lying down, but grouped 

 as natural-looking as the shooter can place them. 



On the water there are numerous other things to think 

 about besides the actual grouping. Position selected con- 

 venient to the ambushed sportsman ; the wind, whether lee or 

 weather shore ; attachment-lines ; prevention of possible foul- 

 ing of the anchoring lines; with a hundred and one other 

 little things which experience and practice can alone teach. 



The ordinary way of anchoring a single decoy is merely 

 to attach a line to the fore hole shown in either Figs. I., II. 

 or III., and allowing extra length or depth according to how 

 deep the water is, with a stone, or other suitable object, as 

 an anchor. A random string of decoys may be used, and 

 is brought about by anchoring the first in the usual way; 

 to its eyehole aft is attached the connecting line of the 

 second bird, which runs, of course, from the fore float-board 



