Xviii INTRODUCTION. 



soon acquires an art, of which tlie precepts are so impressive, that, 

 when once learnt, it is learnt for ever ; and the most unlettered indi- 

 vidual, with common perceptions, becomes an adept. 



It may be imaj^ined a very tantalizing- situation, to be placed in a 

 land where hundreds of wild-fowl are daily in the habit of thronging- 

 the inland waters, and yet to find oneself so far removed from in- 

 genuity, as to be unable to capture a bird ; whilst they might aiford 

 the most abundant and inviting table-luxuries in the country. An 

 individual in such a position would naturally ask himself, as he gazed 

 from da}^ to day upon the feathered oecapants of the waters, " How 

 are the difficulties I see before me to be overcome ? How are these 

 birds to be taken ?" It is our purj)ose, in tliese pages, to explain to 

 ]iim, not only ])ow and wlien to pursue them, but how to take them 

 alive, in large numbers : and, whether on the open waters, savannas, 

 or otherwise, to shoot them, both by night and day. 



The flight-pond, with the curious and interesting proceedings con- 

 nected with it, has hitherto, as a subject of literary diversion, remained 

 in obscurit}' ; no author having ever attempted an exj)lanation, be- 

 yond the fe\\ unintelligible remarks (evidently theoretical), occupy- 

 ing but a few lines, in vol. iii. of Daniel's '' Rural Sj)orts," ■' and wliich 

 are so cramped and inaccurate that they tend rather to mislead than 

 instruct the enquirer ; yet, strange to say, they appear to have l)een 

 copied and recopied by subsequent Avriters, as their only text upon 

 the stibject.f I therefore claim originality upon this head ; and hope, 

 by the readiest means in my power, to lay before my readers a full 

 description of the quaint contrivances which have been invented by 

 our forefathers for capturing a cunning and whimsical species of wild- 

 fowl, which defied the efforts of the most experienced decoyers ; but 

 Avhich fell victims by thousands to another means, as ingenious, 

 though simple, as the decoy. 



* And these appeal- to have hoeii horrowed from jVToutagiie's " Ornitliologj'." 



f Fiofessor Yarrcll, in his book of "British Bii-ds," mentions the flight-jioud ; 



but lie approaches the subject with the same uncertainty, and throws no new light 



upon it. 



