138 British Diving Ducks 
get your first ducks to breed, and even that is not very hard when intelligence, backed by 
certain artificial aids, is brought to bear upon the subject. Now let us see how Sir Richard 
initiated, and has since developed, this idea at Netherby. One day he read in a book that 
no fewer than 16,800 wild fowl had been taken on a single acre of water in England, 
situated in a favourable position (the Harwich decoy). If that could be done in one place, 
it might be done in another, and it was obvious that even comparative success would result 
in a very handsome profit. First of all it was necessary to make a decoy pond, place on 
it a nucleus of duck and feed heavily, so that the home-bred birds should know where food 
could always be obtained. This point is one of extreme importance, because owing to 
severe frosts the duck leave and repair to the sea-coast, where they mix with their wild 
brethren. On a thaw taking place the home-bred birds return at once, or gradually, but 
always bring some of the true wild ones with them. The latter come and go, but they 
have discovered a place of rest which is also a good feeding ground, and so they in turn 
bring back fresh adherents until the decoy pond is too small to hold all the duck that come 
to it. This is what is called ''obtaining a lead," and once having established it, all that 
is necessary to further expansion is increased water area. In this manner it is obvious 
that an enormous number of duck may be attracted for the small cost of the wages of two 
men, a moderate grain bill and the making of a few ponds at a cheap rate, provided the land 
employed is suitable ; that is to say, it must be more or less flat and surrounded with 
woods as wind shelter, for all ducks hate a draught, and there must be an abundant supply 
of water at hand and easy to conduct. 
Sir Richard began work in 1904 by constructing a small decoy pond to catch ducks 
in a wood by the Solway Moss, through which flows a small stream known as the Gap 
Burn. Here he made the mistake of digging out a deep pond, raising high banks and 
puddling the whole with clay. The success of this pond led Sir Richard to abandon the 
old artificial methods as well as to continue to shoot large bags of duck. Now he can 
give his friends a good day's shooting or an evening flight which may realise 50 to 
100 genuine wild duck, and catch for market over 1000 Mallard every season; 
and he has proved that the whole system is capable of great extension, for the reasons 
already given and another. Up to the present time all the ponds which have been con- 
structed at Netherby have been made for the attraction of the various surface-feeding ducks, 
and not for shooting. When it is considered that there is a sufficiency of ducks of all 
species. Sir Richard intends to make other lakes a mile away from the decoy ponds, where 
shooting can take place regularly. Such shooting as is now done is only occasional and 
experimental. 
It is a truism that we only touch the very fringe of the great mass of duck that nightly 
passes over our heads during the early spring and autumn migrations. Unless a man is 
a very close observer of Nature, he has no conception of the tens of thousands of Duck, 
Plover, Snipe, and Woodcock there are which pass over our sleeping land at certain seasons 
only looking for a place of rest. There are many small sheets of water, marsh, and coppice 
which draw some of them down, and they may rest there a few hours, but few indeed are 
quite agreeable enough to hold them, and so they pass on at once. The great thing is 
to make these places suitable with a little care, and thus sanctuaries are formed. Marshes 
and ponds could be formed in the very centre of England, Ireland, and Scotland with every 
