File:The wild-fowler - a treatise on ancient and modern wild-fowling, historical and practical (1864) (14751035332).jpg

Identifier: wildfowlertreati00folk (find matches)
Title: The wild-fowler : a treatise on ancient and modern wild-fowling, historical and practical
Year: 1864 (1860s)
Authors: Folkard, Henry Coleman
Subjects: Fowling Waterfowl shooting Game and game-birds
Publisher: London (England) : Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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al are as well worth taking- as any wild-fowlthat flies; and when plump and fat, as they generally are in earlyseason, there are none of the duck tribe so delicious eating. There is sometimes a separate pipe for teal at decoys, and not in-frequently a separate pond; and when so, it is always called theteal pipe, or the teal pond. In the same manner there is often awidgeon pipe, kept exclusively for widgeon. The Essex decoys are still famous for their supplies of teal. Afew years ago a spring of four hundred visited a small pond atMersea, in Essex ; the greater mmiber of which were taken within afew hours. Lubbock mentions an instance which occurred at a Nor-folk decoy, of two hundred and twenty teal being taken at once, The first flight of wild-fowl fi-om the Netherlands may be expectedabout the beginning of October ; and, if easterly winds prevail, largeflights generally arrive; but if there be no easterly wind about thistime, or but little, they come in small numbers only. The prin-
Text Appearing After Image:
THE ART OF CAPTURING WILD-FOWL BY DECOY. 73 cipal flig-lit which brings such countless numbers of wild-fowl fromforeig-n shores and northern latitudes does not g-enerally arrive untilsevere weather sets in, with north-east wind; when, in proportion tothe severity of the season, they come in greater or less numbers andvarieties. The decoy is exposed to many plunderings and interruptions, whichare sometimes beyond the fowlers control; though some of themarauders may be kept at bay. The boldest thief of all is the fox,and the most mischievous, because he takes the decoy-ducks, itbeing seldom that he succeeds in capturing a wild one : and whenonce reynard has discovered a retreat so favourable for his purpose,he notes the basking-places of the decoy-ducks, and then his cunningseldom fails him, particularly when sharpened with hunger. When-ever an intruder of this kind is found to practise his depredations atthe decoy, the most sportsmanlike manner of being rid of the annoy-ance is, to giv

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