COMMON DUCK, OR MALLARD. 381 



and one or more of the party, experienced as leaders, usually 

 watch for the common safety, and give instant alarm, when- 

 ever there is occasion. During the day, they thus roam at 

 large on the lakes, secluded pools or broad rivers remote 

 from the shores, resting or sleeping till the approach of twi- 

 light. In a domestic state, though their habits are so much 

 changed, they are very noisy and watchful in the evening 

 and at dawn, responding their quack and cackle to the early 

 crowing of the Cock. It is at this time that the fowler, 

 secreted in his hut or in any other way, lays in wait for their 

 approach to the lure of his female decoys, and pours 

 among them his destructive fire. 



It would far exceed our limits to detail the various arts 

 employed in order to obtain this wily and highly esteemed 

 game. Decoys of wood, carefully painted to imitate these 

 and other species, are sometimes very successful lures in 

 the morning twilight. The imitation of floating objects, as a 

 boat painted white amono-st mo vino; ice, has also sometimes 

 been attended with complete success. In India and China, 

 the natives wading into the water, and concealing the head 

 in a calabash, steal upon the Ducks imperceptibly, and 

 drawing ihem down severally by the legs, fasten tliem to a 

 girdle, till they become loaded with their unsuspicious 

 game. 



In the fens of Lincolnshire, extensive and ingenious de- 

 coys are made for this purpose, in the form of a winding 

 canal passing out of the lake where the Ducks resort, 

 and which is screened on one side by a high reed fence. 

 At the bottom of this artificial and converains: sluice inarch- 

 ed with willows, a tunnel net is laid, into which the birds 

 are driven, by a dog trained for the purpose, and sent out 

 to the Ducks at the entrance of the inlet ; they are thus, 

 with suitable precaution, at length urged into the net, some- 

 times in such quantities, that five or six dozen have been 



