. Nature and sport in Britain . he drain. Forthwith, attracted by thewhistle and the sight of the grain floating towardsthem, the decoys quietly paddled up and began that, every head of the wild duck out yonder uponthe pool went up. They knew the signs, saw and heardthe greedy scuttering of their fellows, and they, too,came sailing up to see what good fare might be offer-ing. Just at the entrance to the pipe they suddenly seteyes on an apparition which riveted their attention yetmore. This was no less than the decoy-mans dog, care-fully trained for the part he had now to play. Some-
. Nature and sport in Britain . he drain. Forthwith, attracted by thewhistle and the sight of the grain floating towardsthem, the decoys quietly paddled up and began that, every head of the wild duck out yonder uponthe pool went up. They knew the signs, saw and heardthe greedy scuttering of their fellows, and they, too,came sailing up to see what good fare might be offer-ing. Just at the entrance to the pipe they suddenly seteyes on an apparition which riveted their attention yetmore. This was no less than the decoy-mans dog, care-fully trained for the part he had now to play. Some-times a tame fox was used. One was employed at theBerkeley Castle decoy some five-and-twenty years it is a fact that decoy-men preferably use for thispurpose a dog of a reddish or fox colour. i8 pi ^^^^HJ^^^^^^^^^^I ^fl^^E / fj^^^l ^^ ■^^SS^iisB^H ■ Sy^iy^y^^iSHP : ^J- •-«s^ :a -^- ^-« k^ x&j^H^^^^^^^^^HH^^^H ^^ *- X ■ t .^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^HE .;■ ■ o^^^^^V-- *^^^^^^^^^l ^^^ - ■1 ^r Xb !-•. THE OLD DECOY The dog or the fox, if a fox was used, moved quietlyto and fro for a minute or two, as the wild duck camenearer—the Berkeley fox used to wave his tail in amanner peculiarly and fatally fascinating to the birds—and then turned, made up the drain, and after seeingthat the fowl were following him, and were well withinthe netting, disappeared. He had played his part andjoined his master. It is a strange thing that the wild-fowl, although in reality inwardly alarmed at the dogin front of them, or that yet more dreaded foe the fox,almost invariably followed in pursuit of the vanishedanimal, and were presently so far involved that theirfate was certain. On a sudden the decoy-man steppedfrom behind one of his reed-screens and showed was between the wild duck and the open water, andthey no more dared to try for safety that way than theycould burrow into the earth. Suddenly, too, they dis-covered, as they rose, that between them and the f
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