Page 21 CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER II.

DECOYING.

THE SYSTEM OF CATCHING THE BIRDS WHEN IN THE DECOY PIPES.

In all Decoys, the sole object of the Decoyman is to induce the wild ducks to enter under the netting of a pipe, and then to swim up its ditch to such a distance that he can cut off their retreat back to the pond.
    This latter manoeuvre the Decoyman achieves by getting behind the birds when he has enticed them far enough up the pipe, and then, by suddenly showing himself first at the entrance of the pipe, and afterwards over the dog-jumps between the screens as he quickly passes along their rear, he frightens them up it.
    This feat is the backbone of Decoying. The surprised fowl having no time to consider, and sooner than pass by the Decoyman, who, so to speak, bars their way back to the pond again, they dash away from him up the pipe.
    Such a course they would never take but that the bend or twist of the pipe, which hides its fatal closed end, deludes them into thinking, in their hurry and confusion, that it leads round its curve to open space and so to freedom.
    It is an act that when suddenly alarmed they cannot weigh the wisdom Of, though in their cooler moments they are with difficulty induced to swim even a few yards up a pipe for fear of a snare.
    As they follow one another pell-mell and wild with fright, rebounding against the net of the pipe as they drive along, they become more and more confused and crowded, and still less able to judge whither they are speeding.