APPENDIX. 
455 
autumn remarked them to be accompanied by three others, which it 
was believed might be their young, though when first seen there was 
little apparent difference in size between them and the old birds, .* In 
reference to the shyness of wild ducks, even where they never had an 
opportunity of learning it from their parents, the decoy-keeper at 
Caledon informed us that young birds, which were hatched by artificial 
heat, in an “ incubator,” within the demesne, were, at the moment 
they left the shell, as shy as they could have been under the tuition of 
their natural instructors, although the young of domestic fowls brought 
out in* the same manner showed no fear of man. The young wild 
ducks became more familiar by degrees, but they still retained so much 
of their instinctive caution, that on hearing any sudden noise, such as 
that produced by the stamping of the foot, they instantly endeavoured 
to conceal themselves. 
Mr. Skelton’s method of taking wild-fowl in the decoy at Caledon 
is precisely that described in Yarrell’s work. He mentioned some 
singular instances of the extreme sensitiveness of the olfactory nerves 
in wild-fowl. It is essential for him when about the decoy to prevent 
his presence being known, by breathing upon a turf, which is kept 
slowly burning. This we should imagine the birds must smell, though 
they may not apprehend any danger from it. A gentleman accompanying 
him on one occasion let a spark fall from the turf on his shooting-jacket, 
and the smell of the little portion of the coat that was burnt alarmed 
the birds so much that none were taken. A small piece of burnt 
leather thrown into a decoy pond will prevent the capture of a bird 
that day. The smell of milk boiling over on the fire in a farm-house, 
perhaps six hundred yards from the decoy at Caledon, and the wind 
blowing from the direction of the house to the water, prevents a bird 
being taken the same day. It is of so much consequence to avoid 
anything of this kind, that Mr. Skelton, sen., who rents a farm of a 
thousand acres in connexion with his decoy at Lincolnshire, and has 
about twenty-five people to provide for under his roof, forbids any 
cooking to be done in the house — sometimes for a few days — when 
the wind blows from it on the decoy, perhaps, as in the other instance, 
six hundred yards distant. If the smell of the burnt leather, milk, 
&c., be very strong, it will cause the birds to be unsettled for a long 
time, and particularly at the side of the pond where it is strongest. 
* About the 1st of June, 1850, there was a pair of wigeon in the decoy. 
