APPENDIX. 455 



autumn remarked them to be accompanied by tliree others, which it 

 was believed might be then* young, though when first seen there was 

 little apparent diiFerence in size between them and the old birds.* In 

 reference to the shyness of wild ducks, even where they never had an 

 opportunity of learning it from their parents, the decoy-keeper at 

 Caledon informed us that young birds, which were hatched by artificial 

 heat, in an " incubator," within the demesne, were, at the moment 

 they left the shell, as shy as they could have been under the tuition of 

 their natural instructors, although the young of domestic fowls brought 

 out in the same manner showed no fear of man. The young wild 

 ducks became more familiar by degrees, but they still retained so much 

 of their instinctive caution, that on hearing any sudden noise, such as 

 that produced by the stamping of the foot, they instantly endeavoured 

 to conceal themselves. 



Mr. Skelton's method of taking wild-fowl in the decoy at Caledon 

 is precisely that described in Yarrell's work. He mentioned some 

 singular instances of the extreme sensitiveness of the olfactory nerves 

 in wild-fowl. It is essential for him when about the decoy to prevent 

 his presence being known, by breathing upon a turf, which is kept 

 slowly burning. This we should imagine the birds must smell, though 

 they may not apprehend any danger from it. A gentleman accompanying 

 him on one occasion let a spark fall from the turf on his shooting-jacket, 

 and the smell of the little portion of the coat that was burnt alarmed 

 the birds so much that none were taken. A small piece of burnt 

 leather thrown into a decoy pond will prevent the capture of a bird 

 that day. The smell of milk boiling over on the fire in a farm-house, 

 perhaps six hundi-ed yards from the decoy at Caledon, and the wind 

 blowing from the direction of the house to the water, prevents a bird 

 being taken the same day. It is of so much consequence to avoid 

 anything of this kind, that Mr. Skelton, sen., who rents a farm of a 

 thousand acres in connexion with his decoy at Lincolnshire, and has 

 about twenty-five people to provide for under his roof, forbids any 

 cooking to be done in the house — sometimes for a few days — when 

 the wind blows from it on the decoy, perhaps, as in the other instance, 

 six hundred yards distant. If the smell of the burnt leather, milk, 

 &c., be very strong, it will cause the birds to be unsettled for a long 

 time, and particularly at the side of the pond where it is strongest. 



* About the 1st of June, 1850, there was a pair of wigeon in the decoy. 



