Wild-fowl.

Wild-fowl. The Act of 1880 specifies as 'wild birds' which may not be shot or killed save between 1st August and the last day of February: American quail, auk, avocet, bee-eater, bittern, bonxie, colin, Cornish chough, coultnerbe, cuckoo, curlew, diver, dotterel, dunbird, dunlin, eider duck, fern owl, fulmar, gannet, goatsucker, godwit, goldfinch, grebe, greenshank, guillemot, gull (except black-backed gull), hoopoe, kingfisher, kittiwake, lapwing, lark, loon, mallard, marrot, merganser, murre, night-hawk, night-jar, nightingale, oriole, owl, oxbird, oyster-catcher, peewit, petrel, phalarope, plover, ploverspave, pochard, puffin, purre, razor-bill, redshank, reeve or ruff, roller, sanderingling, sandpiper, scot, sea-lark, sea-mew, seaparrot, sea-swallow, shearwater, sheldrake, shoveller, skua, smew, snipe, solan-goose, spoonbill, stint, stone curlew, stonehatch, summer snipe, tarroch, teal, tern, thick-knee, tystey, whaup, wilimbrel, widgeon, wild duck, willock, woodcock, and woodpecker. The term wild-fowl is often limited to waterfowl, which are got at by various special methods, including the gunner's punt, and the decoy. From the decoy-pond several pipes covered with hooped network extend in various directions. Wild ducks, widgeon, teal, &c. are induced to enter the wide mouths of the pipes by grain scattered near, by tame decoy-ducks, and with the help of a trained dog. Once in the pipes, they are easily forced along to the narrow end, where they are readily caught. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, in The Book of Duck Decoys (1886), has collected particulars of 173 English decoys—a number, however, reduced to 39 at the time when he wrote, whilst since the passing of the Ground Game Act (1880) the average annual take in the Berkeley Castle decoys had sunk from 1370 to about 500 head. See also works by the Rev. F. O. Morris (1873) and Leffingwell (Chicago, 1888).