Page 32 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS.

THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS.

    I need scarcely say, did the ducks see him move past the openings between the screens, they would be out of the pipe in an instant. Nor would all the Decoymen alive ever persuade them into it again that day, perhaps not for a week, likely enough never.
    There are two methods by which this important feat of driving up the fowl is managed.
    1st. A few feet behind the screens and dog-jumps, and in a line with them on the same curve,-that being the curve of the pipe-are back screens, 30 feet long.
    These back screens consist of three only, and at their ends they also overlap.
    The divisions between them allow a man to pass to their rear easily and quickly.
    These openings are just opposite the spots in the ditch at which, when the ducks have been lured so far, they are far enough to drive up the pipe.     When the Decoyman has succeeded in enticing them this very necessary distance, he that instant steps backwards between the back screens and so races unobserved to the shew place at the mouth of the pipe. Just as he turns to leave the pipe, he throws into it, over the screen in front of him, his last handful of grain, or urges his dog over the jump and round its front, according as he happens to be dogging or feeding. If, when the Decoyman reaches his show place, the fowl are still above him, as of course they should be, up the pipe they are sure to go, as they think to save their lives. If the birds are a good way up the pipe the Decoyman need not go all the way to the head shew place, but can appear behind the fowl at one of the dog-jumps.
    But the Decoyman has to be very quick, for the moment the dog ceases working round the screens, or the supply of grain stops falling into the water, the birds very often are liable to beat a retreat by swimming down the pipe towards the pond from whence they came.
    However, unless really alarmed, they can nearly always be intercepted in time and with their heads still pointing up the pipe, and consequently in the right direction for them to take wing.
    2nd. The other method is precisely similar in its effect, and differs only in respect to the way the Decoyman gets behind the birds when in the pipe. Instead of back screens a concealed path that leads circuitously to the head show place is formed a few yards in the rear of the screens.