be rented by tlie fowlers ; and Pennant instances a season
in which 31,200 Duck, Teal and Wigeon, were sold in
London only, from ten of these decoys near Wainfleet, in
Lincolnshire. Even in a recent year, as the Editor is informed
by Mr. Cordeaux, 6,321 Duck and Teal were taken
at the Ashby Decoy, and of these 2,300 in thirty-one days.
Two illustrations, reduced in size, from designs which
appeared in the Penny Magazine, of February 1835, exhibit
the screens, the net, and the mode of proceeding, and will
enable the reader, with a short description, to understand
the process.
The wild birds are enticed from that portion of the lake
near the wide open mouth of the tunnel by means of the
dog, the decoy Ducks, and the corn used in feeding them,
till the 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 to see him, while none that are on the lake can.
The wild-fowl that are in sight hasten forward, their retreat
being cut off by the appearance of the man, whom they dare
not pass. The decoyman then moves on to the next opening,
and the wild birds are thus driven along till they 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.
The Author was indebted to the late Rev. Richard Lubbock
for the following account of the mode of making a
decoy, supplied him by a friend in Norfolk.
In making a decoy it is necessary to have from an acre
and a half to three or four acres of water, in a quiet place
surrounded by plantation ; the water should be in the form
of a star, making six equal divisions of the compass; in
these six recesses must be made six pipes : they are constructed
by digging cuts in the land something in the form
of a semicircle covered over with bows, and a net gradually
tapering to the end, at which must be placed a tunnel net,
3 A