DECOYING WITH FOOD. | |
| This is all in the Decoyman's favour, and he will more often feed tide-frequenting birds up the pipes owing to such causes than make them follow the dog. They are then too hungry to be curious. Wigeon at all times feed up a pipe better than they follow a dog. On the other hand, if fowl are not hungry, as is commonly the case with inland Duck and Teal, when marshes and rivers and rich water meadows are near, then the dog is the most certain means of attracting their notice. W hen feeding, throw the food from behind the screens over their tops, not only into the middle of the ditch, but as far also under the opposite bank of the pipe as possible, as the fowl will swim up more readily the further they are away from the screens. On bright, fine days fowl are brisk and on the qui vive. In dull, wet, or misty weather much the reverse. In the latter it often happens neither dog nor food will move them. I have shown How both dog and food are used to entice the fowl up the pipes, I will now describe the effect the dog has on the birds them-selves. Why they follow the food I have already explained. | |
 |
|
THE EFFECT OF THE DOG ON THE DUCKS. | |
| Let us glance through the peep-hole of the screen that flanks the mouth of a pipe, on the sheltered side of the pond. See, the fowl are sleeping! Some idly jerking their bodies round and round in irregular twists, with an occasional stroke of one foot as they float on the water. Some are sitting just beneath us on the banks near the entrance of the pipe with their heads tucked in, giving a wriggle of the bill now and then, as though to divide the feathers of the back, and so pillow their heads more cosily. Their eyes just show. Are they shut or open ? or half open ? 'Tis hard to say. Never was there a more peaceful, innocent scene; for surely, consider the ducks, this is pure, unalloyed happiness; no guns banging oft no foxes, no human destroyers. No, nothing, absolutely nothing, to disturb their repose so well earned after a toilsome night spent far away in search of food. | |