SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



all over the kingdom, but it is probably found 

 more frequently in Lancashire than in any other 

 county, though even here it is of rare occurrence. 



DUCK DECOYS 



The word 'Decoy' comes from Holland, 

 where duck decoys originated. It is an 

 abbreviation of the words * Ende-kooy,' i.e. 

 the duck's cage, and was used to represent 

 the cage of nets into which the wild-fowl were 

 driven in earlier times. At the present day the 

 birds are not driven, but enticed to their doom 

 in the pipe decoys, either by means of a dog or 

 by scattering of food. 



The present system is a great improvement on 

 the old one. Apparently in olden days vast 

 numbers of duck bred in England, and from the 

 copy of an old print in Sir Ralph Payne- 

 Gallwey's book on Duck Decoys, it is evident 

 that the fowl were driven into the pipes of 

 nets, which were shaped like an inverted V, and 

 placed at the narrow end of a mere.' 



In 1854 an Act was passed forbidding the 

 capture of wild-fowl between 31 May and 

 31 August, and, since between those dates the 

 birds had to be enticed and not driven, this 

 caused the building of decoys with pipes at 

 various distances round the pond. The artists 

 who planned these decoys were chiefly of one 

 family, of the name of Shelton, who came from 

 Friskney in Lincolnshire at the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century, and various members of it 

 remodelled nearly all our best decoys, one of 

 them partly reconstructing that at Hale in 

 Lancashire. 



Lancashire has never had more than the two 

 famous decoys at Hale and at Orford Hall near 

 Warrington ; the latter no longer exists and the 

 moat and the pool are both dry, but the remains 

 of the decoy, though much overgrown, can still be 

 traced. Of this decoy unfortunately there are 

 no records in existence. 



The Hale decoy, the property of Colonel 

 Ireland Blackburne, is situated nine miles to the 

 south-east of Liverpool on a small peninsula on 

 the right bank of the River Mersey, almost 

 opposite to Runcorn. It is only 125 yards from 

 a main road along which there is constant traffic, 

 while on the seaward side it is not more than a 

 quarter of a mile from the Mersey estuary, where 

 noisy steamers are constantly passing up and 

 down ; yet the birds, strangely enough, do not 

 seem to mind these very things which would 

 have prevented most people from placing a decoy 

 in such a position. Its exact age is unknown, 

 but there is conclusive evidence to prove that it 

 has been in use for over 170 years. 



In 1854 the decoy was much improved by 

 Mr. Blackburne, who came that year from 

 Orford Hall to live at Hale Hall. The extent 

 of it is some five acres, with a pool of one acre. 

 It has five radiating creeks, called ' pipes,' and is 

 surrounded by a moat filled with water, which 

 serves the double purpose of keeping out vermin 

 and of giving greater privacy to the decoy. 

 This moat is about 1 8 ft. wide, and is 

 by a small footbridge, which is easily 



across, and when not in use lies parallel 



' Sir Ralph 

 Decoys, 5. 



Payne-Gallwey, bart. Book of Duck 



48s 



crossed 

 swung 

 to the 

 bank of the moat. 



The pipes are placed at about equal distances 

 from each other, radiating outwards from the 

 pool like the arms of a starfish, and their length 

 is some seventy yards. They are so constructed 

 that they bend away from the main pool. The 

 ends are consequently out of view of the pool, 

 so that when a person shows himself to the birds 

 in the pipes those on the pool cannot see him. 



These pipes are covered with netting, stretched 

 over dome-shaped wooden frames about 10 ft. 

 high. The netting does not come right down 

 to the banks of the pipes, and though it seems 

 as if the birds might escape through the gap of 

 about one foot between the netting and the 

 ground, as a matter of fact they very rarely do 

 so, their natural tendency being to fly upwards. 

 The pipe gradually diminishes in height until it 

 terminates in the tunnel net. This net is semi- 

 circular, and held in position by hoops set about 

 one foot apart. When the decoy is not in use 

 the tunnel-nets are removed, and the end of the 

 pipe closed by means of a sliding piece of wood, 

 so that the birds may get accustomed to moving 

 about in the decoy, and may not regard it as a 

 trap. On the left of each pipe, looking up it 

 with one's back to the pool, there is a small path 

 for a dog to run along when engaged in decoy- 

 ing the wild fowl ; on the left of this path are 

 high wooden palings built obliquely and over- 

 lapping each other at regular distances, and 

 connected by low barriers about two feet high. 

 These low barriers form what are termed ' show 

 places,' and it is here that the decoy-man shows 

 himself to the birds when he considers they 

 have gone far enough up the pipe for a catch ; 

 in these barriers small openings with shutters 

 on the outside are made, through which the dog 

 is put. In the wooden palings before referred 

 to are cut small slits, both vertical and horizontal, 

 and through them the pool and the pipe can be 

 viewed without alarming the birds. On the 

 right side of the pipes are trees and bushes ; the 

 sides of the pipes are about a foot deep, and cut 

 vertically to prevent the birds from getting 

 on to the banks ; at the mouths of the pipes, 

 however, the banks slope gradually to the 

 water. This allows the birds to sit near the 

 mouths of the pipes, and these resting-places are 

 termed * chairs.' Another reason for the steep- 

 ness of the sides of the pool is that there may 



