to be taken off when the fowl are driven into it. On each
side of the pipe are screens made of reed to shelter the
person working the decoy ; the outer side of the circle of
the pipe is the one on which the person walks who is decoying
the fowl, and in the screens on that side must he
divisions for the dog to pass over, and also for the man to
appear at when driving the fowl.
The water forming the decoy should be surrounded with
a fence of reeds three or four feet high to prevent the
decoy Ducks from getting out of it. About Midsummer
is the time to put them into the water, and commence
training them, which is a very important part in the art of
decoying ; they should be young birds, and made very tame,
taught to come to any pipe from all parts of the water
whenever they are whistled, and to prevent them flying they
should be pinioned.
In working a decoy it is best to go to that pipe at which
the wind blows from the tunnel net to the bend of the pipe;
by doing so all scent of the person at work is carried away
from the fowl in the pipe, and as all wild-fowl by choice
rise head to wind, there are generally more taken with the
wind in that direction than any other. During the time
the weather is open they are taken almost entirely by means
of the dog, but as soon as the frost sets in they are taken
by feeding them in the pipe, and keeping a piece of water
constantly open near it.
The reason in favour of a small piece of water for a decoy,
not exceeding three or four acres at the most, is, that when
thus confined in extent you can almost always work fowl,
but if a large lake is made a decoy, there may be thousands
of Ducks on the water, but none near enough to a pipe to
regard the dog* or the decoy Ducks. Bewick has given a
plan of one pipe of a decoy, with zigzag markings showing
the situation and position of the screens formed of reeds,
* A well-trained dog moves the birds from the banks w'hen they are sluggish,
and is otherwise useful when they are within the mouth of the pipe. He
should be small, active, silent, and if of a foxy colour he is likely to prove
especially attractive.
by which the fowler and his trained dog are hid from the
sight of the wild birds, an outline only of which is here
introduced.
Mallards begin to congregate in the decoy soon after
Midsummer, but these are the fowl that are bred in the
neighbourhood. About the first week in September the
Teal begin to come, and about the beginning of October, if
easterly winds prevail, there is generally a flight of fowl
from foreign countries, composed of Mallards, Wigeon,
Dunbirds or Pochards, Teal, with a few Shovellers and
Pintails; but the principal flight of foreign fowl does not
arrive till the weather becomes severe ; at that time all sorts
arrive, with the exception of the Garganey, which we do
not see before the spring of the year, and then only for the
purpose of breeding, if unmolested.*
The Mallard is an early breeder, nesting in March in the
southern counties and in mild seasons, and by the middle of
April even on the bleak moors of Northumberland; so that
* Of. Lubbock’s ‘ Fauna of Norfolk ’ (1845) ; especially the new edition
(1879), with notes and additions by Mr. T. Southwell, the author of an excellent
paper on Norfolk Decoys ( l’r. Nor. N. H. Soc. ii. pp. 538-555). For more recent
practical experiences Sir R. Payne-Gallwey’s ‘ Fowler in Ireland ’ (pp. 67—94)
may be consulted ; there are also numerous magazine-articles on Decoys.