breed during summer on the margins of rivers and lakes in
many counties, these bear but a very small proportion to the
numbers 'which annually visit this^country from high northern
latitudes during winter. Particular spots, o r decoys, in the
fen countries, are let to the fowlers at a rent of from .,five
pounds to thirty pounds pgr annum; and Pennant instances
a season in which thirty-one thousand, two hundred Dugks,
including Teals and Wigeons, were sold in London only,
from ten of these decoys, near Wainfleet, in Lincolnshire.
Two illustrations, g reduced in :sfz§? from "designs which
appeared in the Penny Magazine, of February' IS p l, which
exhibit the screens, the net, and the mode of proceeding,
will enable the_jreader, with a short-description, to understand
the process.-
The wild birds are enticed .from that portion of., th&slake
near the wide open mouth of the tunnel by means of the dog,
the decoy ducks, and the corn used in deeding them.in;'tiHthe
decoyman has worked them sufficiently up the pipe to
enable him> to show himself at one of the- openings between
the wild birds and the entrance from the lake,., the oblique
position' of the reed screens enabling all the birds in the pipe
IpiSee him, while none that are on the lake can. The wildfowl
that-’are in sight hasten forward, their retreat being cut
off by tjae appearance of the man whom they dare not pass.
The dhcoyman then moves on to the next'opening, waving
his hat if necessary, and . the wild birds are thus driven along
till tfifey enter the tunnel net and are all taken, a twist of the
net prevents them getting back. The decoyman then takes
the net off from the? end of the pipe with what fowl he may
haVe caught, takes them out one at a time, dislocates their
necks^'hangs -the tunnel on to the net again, and all is ready
for working afresh.
I am indebted to the Rev. Richard Lubbock for the following
account ofr the mode of making a decoy, supplied him
by: a friend in Norfolk. -