78 THE MALLARD. 



"In the lakes where they resort," says the correspondent of that 

 ingenious author, " the most favorite haunts of the fowl are observed : 

 then in the most sequestered part of this haunt, they cut a ditch about 

 four yards across at the entrance, and about fifty or sixty yards in 

 length, decreasing gradually in width from the entrance to the farther 

 end, which is not more than two feet wide. It is of a circular form, 

 but not bending much for the first ten yards. The banks of the lake, 

 for about ten yards on each side of this ditch (or pipe, as it is called) 

 are kept clear from reeds, coarse herbage, &c., in order that the fowl 

 may get on them to sit and dress themselves. Across this ditch, poles 

 on each side, close to the edge of the ditch, are driven into the ground, 

 and the tops bent to each other and tied fast. These poles at the 

 entrance form an arch, from the top of which to the water is about ten 

 feet. This arch is made to decrease in height, as the ditch decreases in 

 width, till the farther end is not more than eighteen inches in height. 

 The poles are placed about six feet from each other, and connected 

 together by poles laid lengthwise across the arch and tied together. 

 Over them a net with meshes sufiiciently small to prevent the fowl 

 getting through, is thrown across, and made fast to a reed fence at the 

 entrance, and nine or ten yards up the ditch, and afterwards strongly 

 pegged to the ground. At the farther end of the pipe, a tunnel net, 

 as it is called, is fixed, about four yards in length, of a round form, and 

 kept open by a number of hoops about eighteen inches in diameter, 

 placed at a small distance from each other, to keep it distended. Sup- 

 posing the circular bend of the pipe to be to the right, when you stand 

 with your back to the lake, on the left hand side a number of reed 

 fences are constructed, called shootings, for the purpose of screening 

 from sight the decoy-man, and in such a manner, that the fowl in the 

 decoy may not be alarmed, while he 

 is driving those in the pipe : these 

 shootings are about four yards in 

 length, and about six feet high, and 

 are ten in number. They are placed 

 in the following manner — 



From the end of the last shooting, a person cannot see the lake, owing 

 to the bend of the pipe : there is then no farther occasion for shelter. 

 Were it not for those shootings, the fowl that remain about the mouth 

 of the pipe would be alarmed, if the person driving the fowl already 

 under the net should be exposed, and would become so shy as to forsake 

 the place entirely. The first thing the decoy-man does when he 

 approaches the pipe, is to take a piece of lighted turf or peat and hold 

 it near his mouth, to prevent the fowl smelling him. He is attended 

 by a dog taught for the purpose of assisting him : he walks very 

 silently about half way up the shootings, where a small piece of wood 



