THE COMMON WILD DUCK 193 



well as they could. The web-foots and the marsh- 

 trotters, however, were never on friendly terms in 

 those days when I lived in the North Kent marshes. 



Very strict laws exist as to decoys. It is abso- 

 lutely necessary, for one thing, that extreme quiet 

 should be kept in their vicinity. Any bird of prey 

 or Heron that showed must be quickly got rid of; 

 within a certain distance no gun dared be fired near 

 a decoy. If a fox got there he had to be got rid of ; 

 — foxes like ducks. 



As to pike, if they do get in a decoy-pond, they 

 ought not to ; but they do at times when the ponds 

 are away from the tide. They have to be got out of 

 it, for their vicious plunges at small deer found near 

 cover, that is, near secluded places, will at times raise 

 the fowl. The slush-up of a fair-sized pike in sedges 

 makes a very considerable noise. 



There is always something to be done in or round 

 about a decoy -pond in summer and in winter. In 

 the summer the men have to see to all the details — ■ 

 the water, banks, hedges, and the netting that covers 

 the pipes ; to stop and firmly plug all holes made 

 by either rabbits or rats, for these creatures will 

 draw near if they can. So they are busy, the coy- 

 man and his mate, the latter being generally one of 

 his own sons ; strangers they will not have, if they 

 can help it, at any price. So very close and chary 

 of speech were they, that it was a common saying 

 about those that we knew, that " if you had to talk 

 to them you had better take a crowbar with you to 

 open their mouths with." 



