198 



NATURALISTS CABINET. 



How taken in decors*. 



untried in the remoter parts of the country." In 

 only ten decoys in the neighbourhood of Wain- 

 fleet, as many as thirty-one thousand two hun- 

 dred have been caught in one season. Numbers 

 are annually taken thus in Lincolnshire. 



A decoy is a pond generally situated in a 

 marsh, so as to be surrounded with wood or 

 reeds, and if possible with both, to prevent the 

 birds which frequent it from being disturbed. 

 In this pond the birds sleep during the day; and 

 as soon as the evening sets in, the decoy rises (as 

 it is termed), and the wild fowl feed during the 

 night. If the evening be still, the noise of their 

 wings during flight is heard at a great distance, 

 and is a pleasing though somewhat melancholy 

 sound. The decoy-ducks (which are either bred 

 in the pond-yard, or in the marshes adjacent ; 

 and which, although they fly abroad, regularly 

 return for food to the pond, and mix with the 

 tame ones that never quit the pond) are fed with 

 hemp-seed, oats, and buck-wheat. In catching 

 the wild birds, hemp-seed is thrown over the 

 skreens to allure them forward into the pipes; of 

 which there are several,, leading up a narrow 

 ditch, that closes at last with a funnel-net. Over 

 these pipes, which grow narrower from the first 

 entrance, there is a continued arch of netting, 

 suspended on hoops. It is necessary to have a 

 pipe for almost every wind that can blow, as on 

 that circumstance it depends which pipe the 

 fowl will take to. The decoy-man likewise always 



