THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. | |
| The Decoy pipes do not usually have arched hoops, but instead, poles erected each side of the ditch over which netting is stretched so as to form a square roofed Decoy pipe. I remarked a curious device worth mentioning by which the Dutch Decoymen protect the tame Decoy Ducks in the laying season from the attacks of foxes, cats, and other enemies. They fix to the branches or trunks of the trees in the Decoy wood, 6ft. or so above ground, neat smooth baskets made of reed or straw. A sketch of one of these contrivances I here give. | |
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| The Decoy birds fly in, line the inside of the basket with down, lay their eggs and bring their young out in safety. After a few days the baskets are taken down and kept as shelters for both young and old in a wired enclosure, and not put up on the trees again till the following nesting season. | |
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