54 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



decoy. Here, enclosing and following the course of 

 one of these branches, is a decoy pipe, a long, curving 

 framework of light arches, covered in with strong 

 wide- meshed netting, and becoming lower and narrower 

 the further we go from its mouth, though, as we stand 

 by its wide-arched entrance, some ten feet high and 

 fifteen across, the far extremity is unseen by us as by 

 the hapless duck which swims in, unwotting of sudden 

 and violent death awaiting it not a hundred yards 

 away. One side of the pipe is merely sheltered by a 

 straight reed-fence, the other, upon which it is intended 

 to be worked, by the well-known arrangement of reed- 

 screens placed obliquely, the open ends being about 

 a yard apart. Between each pair of these open ends 

 is a low connecting piece of boarding, the " dog-jump " 

 over which the decoy-man's canine assistant leaps to 

 arouse the curiosity of the ducks. Viewed from the 

 mouth of the pipe, these screens give the impression of 

 a continuous reed-wall, the openings, of course, fronting 

 the other way. The pipe is fifty or sixty yards long, 

 and at its far end not more than two feet wide. Further 

 round the margin of the lake are three similar pipes, 

 each following the course of a shallow reedy inlet. 

 A decoy must consist of several, as the ducks will only 

 swim to windward. Beside a small hut near at hand 

 are hanging up four of five of the tunnel-nets which 

 are fixed on at the narrow end of the pipe when a haul 

 is made. These are ordinary bow-nets, eight or ten 



