Decoy
a place into which wild fowls are decoyed in order to be caught. A decoy pond is kept only in a secluded situation. Several channels or pipes of a curved form, covered with light hooped net-work, lead from the pond in various directions. The wild fowl are enticed to enter the wide mouth of the channel by tamed ducks, also called decoys, trained for the purpose, or by grain scattered on the water. When they have got well into the covered channel they are surprised by the decoy-man and his dog, and driven up into the funnel net at the far end, where they are easily caught. The details differ in different cases, but this is the general principle of the contrivance.
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Decree
in general, an order, edict, or law made by a superior as a rule to govern inferiors. In law it is a judicial decision or determination of a litigated cause. Formerly, in England, the term was specially used for the judgment of a court of equity, but the word judgment is now used in reference to the decisions of all the divisions of the Supreme Court. The word is still used in Scotland for the final judgment of a court, frequently in the form decreet.
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Decrescent
a heraldic term by which the wane of the moon is indicated. A moon decrescent is a half-moon with her horns turned to the (heraldic) sinister-i. e., the right of the spectator.
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Decretals
a general name for the Papal decrees, comprehending the rescripts (answers to inquiries and petitions), decrees (judicial decisions by the Rota Romana), mandates (official instructions for ecclesiastical officers, courts, etc.), edicts (Papal ordinances in general) and general resolutions of the councils. The decretals form a most important portion of the Roman Catholic canon lav, the authoritative collection of them being that made by the orders of Gregory IX. and published in 1234.
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Dectera
A figure of Irish medieval romance. She was the daughter of Cathbad the Druid, and mother of Cuchulain (q.v.). She and fifty other maidens disappeared from the court of Conor mac Nessa. Three years later, while pursuing a flock of birds which were spoiling the crops, the king and courtiers came upon a magnificent palace inhabited by a youth of noble mien and a beautiful woman and fifty maidens. These were recognised as Dectera and her companions, and the youth as Lugh , the sun-god. Conor summoned Dectera to him, but she sent him instead her new-born son, Cuchulain.
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Dedham
a town of Massachusetts, the county-seat of Norfolk co. It includes three villages and is on the Charles river, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad. Though it is chiefly a residential suburb of Boston, it has important industries, including manufacturies of cotton and woolen goods, carpets, handkerchiefs, and pottery. The notable buildings include a memorial hall, a public library, and the Historical Society building. It also contains a county court house, a jail, and a house of correction. The town was settled in 1636 and was incorporated in the same year. The first free school in America was established here in 1645. Pop. (1910) 9,284; (1920) 10,792.
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Deduction
in logic, as opposed to induction, is the method of reasoning from generals to particulars, as the latter is from particulars to generals. In duction is the mode by which all the materials of knowledge are brought to the mind and analyzed; deductions, the process by which the knowledge thus acquired is utilized, and by which new and more complicated inductions are rendered possible. Thu a deduction is also an induction.
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Dee
the name of several British rivers. (1) A river of Scotland, partly in Kincardineshire, but chiefly in Aberdeenshire, one of the most finely wooded and one of the best salmon rivers in Great Britain. It rises on the S. W. border of Aberdeenshire, and flows generally E. 87 miles to the German ocean, having Aberdeen at its mouth. (2) A river of north Wales and Cheshire; rises in Lake Bala, Merionethshire; flows N. E., N., and N. W. to the Irish Sea 20 miles below Chester; length, about 80 miles. The ancient Britons held its waters sacred. (3) A river of Scotland, county of Kirkcudbright, rises in Loch Dee, a lonely lake, 7 furlongs long and from 115 to 4 furlongs wide, situated among 3 the western hills. It flows S. E. and S., and falls into Kirkcudbright Bay; length, 38 miles.
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Deemster
an ancient legal term, a chief justice of the Isle of Man . At present there are two, one for the southern, one for the northern part of the island. The term is akin to doom, it being the duty of the deemster chief to pronounce the doom of the guilty. Hall Caine chose The Deemster for the name of one of his most noted stories. See Man
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Deer-Mouse
a handsome, delicate wild mouse. It is also called the white-footed mouse. It has rounded ears, wide, innocent eyes, fawn-colored sides, a daintily marked back, and white under parts. It is about seven inches long, half tail. It moves about at night and is active all winter. In the summer time, it collects nuts and seeds, stowing them away in hollow trees, and under stones and logs, or in pockets in the turf. A pair of small pouches, chipmunklike, are used to carry supplies. The deermouse is fond of honey. When pursued the deer-mouse endeavors to escape by long jumps, not equal, of course, to those of the jumping mouse . While apt to be a nuisance in camp from a habit of pilfering food, the deer-mouse is a companionable little fellow, quite free from the vicious habits of the European house mouse. See Mouse
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Deere
John. See Plow
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Deerfield
a town of Franklin co., Mass.; on the Connecticut river, and the Boston and Maine and the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads; ls: 33 20-Vol. III-Cyc miles N. of Springfield. It is principally engaged in agriculture and the manufacture of pocket-books, and has a high school and public library. The town contains the village of South Deerfield, and was the scene of several contests with the Indians in colonial times. Among them the "Bloody Brook Massacre" the village were (1675) and the burning of by the French and Indians under De Rouville (1703). Old Deerfield has a beautiful Soldiers' Monument, and there is at South Deerfield a marble monument commemorative of the Bloody Brook disaster. Pop. (1920) 2,808.
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