172 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



about the decoy-enclosure ; far be it from me to 

 laugh at a practice so time-honoured by a class of 

 men whose chief interest is not to alarm the fowl, 

 but with regard to the present species, I can only 

 say that I have repeatedly approached to within a 

 very short distance of Mallards, both on land and 

 on water, with a strong breeze at my back, and very 

 often with a lighted pipe in my mouth, and more 

 than once, when well concealed, have seen birds of 

 this and other species swim straight up wind towards 

 me till within half gunshot-range. I have always 

 been extremely sceptical about the powers of scent 

 attributed to various birds, and can safely aver that 

 in endless cases in my own experience, my presence 

 and that of other persons has remained undetected, 

 or at least unnoticed, by Mallards and many other 

 birds in the most favourable circumstance (to them) 

 of discovery by scent. I am quite ready to confess, 

 after years of study and observation, that the science 

 of scent in birds and beasts is still a very great 

 mystery to me, but as the most remarkable facts that 

 I have personally learned on this subject refer to the 

 Mammalia, they would be out of place here, and I 

 will only add that whatever may be the powers of the 

 olfactory nerves in birds, they are decidedly far 

 inferior to those of warm-blooded quadrupeds ; I am, 

 of course, writing of birds generally, for of course 

 the probability is that the power of scent is stronger 

 in certain families than in others ; on the other hand, 

 I feel sure that sight is more fully developed in birds 

 than in any other animals, and Wild Ducks are 

 certainly possessed of very quick ears and the 

 shrewdest instinct of self-preservation, but, fortunately 

 for the owners of decoys, are frequently victims to an 

 insatiable curiosity. 



