FLIGHTING 133 



satisfactory point of view to a good fowler's notions, as such 

 an one objects, above all, to constant snapping at impossible 

 ranges on the offchance of pinioning one or two birds, with 

 the probability of pricking, maiming, or needlessly causing 

 suffering to many others; a system of pot-hunting which 

 fosters unpleasantness, and brings wildfowlers into disrepute 

 amongst those who are not aware that no one deprecates it 

 so much as does the truest of true sportsmen, a good wild- 

 fowler. 



Decoy -Flighting Pools. 



These pools, when properly made and used by fowl, are as 

 carefully watched and jealously guarded by their owners or 

 lessees as are the regular decoys now, alas ! so few and far 

 between. 



To the sportsman they have distinct advantages over other 

 decoys, as the fowl are killed in a sporting fashion instead of 

 having their necks wrung wholesale by one man, with no gun- 

 powder expended over their downfall. The water need not 

 be made anything like so large as an ordinary decoy pond or 

 lake ; if it was it could not be properly worked. And instead of 

 being star-shaped it should be made triangular, with the base 

 facing westwards, for reasons which will be shortly given. 



There are several of these pools in Broadland where the 

 owners of some of the large tracks of bog and swamp have 

 dug them out with a double purpose to secure the excellent 

 sport they afford all through the winter, and to fill up the 

 holes, dips and low-lying levels on their marshes with the soil 

 excavated. Thus these decoy-flighting pools cannot be 

 called extravagant luxuries for the landowner, because, although 

 he gives up an acre, perhaps a little more, yet he gains a con- 

 siderable improving value to his marshes, quite equalising the 

 outlay expended, whilst at present-day rentals the existence 

 of the pool would be greatly to his advantage. Again, the 

 ground selected for the site is generally a coarse, rough swamp 

 or marsh, the product of which is valueless as fodder, and only 



