THE WILD DUCK. 



367 



are annually taken in the decoys. In only ten decoys in the neighbor- 

 hood of Wainfleet, as many as thirty-one thousand two hundred have been 

 caught in one season. 



A decoy is a 

 pond generally 

 situated in a 

 marsh, so as to 

 be surrounded 

 with wood or 

 reeds, and, if 

 possible, with 

 both, for the 

 purpose of pre- 

 venting the 

 birds which fre- 

 quent it from 

 being dis- 

 turbed. In this 

 pond the birds 

 sleep during the 

 day, and, as 

 soon as the eve- 

 ning sets in, the 

 decoy rises, (as 

 it is termed,) 

 and the wild- 

 fowl feed dur- 

 ing the night. 



It' the evening be still, the noise of their wings during flight 

 is heard at a great distance, and is a pleasing though somewhat 

 melancholy sound. The decoy-ducks (which are either bred in 

 the pond-yard, or in the marshes adjacent, and which, although 

 they fly abroad, regularly return for food to the pond, and mix with 

 the tarne ones that never quit the pond) are fed with hemp-seed, oats, 

 and buck-wheat. In catching the wild birds, hemp-seed is thrown 

 over the screens to allure them forward into the pipes ; of which there 

 are several, leading up a narrow ditch, that closes at last with & funnel- 

 net Over these pipes, which grow narrower from the first, entrance, 

 there is a continued arch of netting suspended on hoops. It is 

 necessary to have a pipe for almost every wind that can blow, as on 

 that circumstance it depends which pipe the fowl will take to. The 

 ilixjoy-man likewise always keeps to the leeward of the wild-fowl, and 

 burns in his mouth or hand a piece of Dutch turf, that his effluvia may 

 not reach them ; for, if they once discover by the smell that a man is 

 near, they all instantly take flight. Along each pipe are placed reed 

 screens, at certain intervals, to prevent him from being seen till ho 

 thinks proper to show himself, or the birds have passed up the pipe 

 to which they are led by the trained Ducks, (which know the man's 

 whistle,) or enticed by the hemp-seed. A Dog is sometimes used, who 

 is taught to play backward and forward between the screens, at tl6 



WILD Dr(K. 



