THE COMMON WILD DUCK OR MALLARD 113 



The wild duck subsists largely on insects and other animal food 

 found in water and on land, rendering good service in keeping 

 down weeds and confervaceous growths in the water, and in scour- 

 ing the adjoining land for slugs and allied pests. About harvest 

 the young who have survived infant perils from pike and other 

 voracious creatures are able to shift for themselves, and after fatten- 

 ing on the scattered grain of cornfields, they take to the waters 

 again, and are ready for the gun. In Lincolnshire great numbers 

 of these birds were formerly, and are still to some extent, taken in 

 a very ingenious trap, called a decoy, which is a perfect edifice 



FIG. 72. THE COMMON WILD DUCK OR MALLARD. 



of poles and nets, and is built in the form of a tube, very wide at 

 the mouth and very narrow at the extremity. The ducks are 

 induced to enter the " pipe " by the antics of a dog, and by some 

 hempseed previously strewed on the water. They are then driven 

 onwards to the smaller end, where they are caught and killed. 



Duck shooting on the Norfolk Broads is generally practised by 

 the " decoy," also on some ponds frequented by these birds. Five or 

 six wooden figures cut and painted so as to represent ducks and 

 sunk by pieces of lead nailed on the bottom so as to float at the 

 usual depth on the surface are anchored in a favourable position 

 for being raked from a concealment of brush, etc., on shore. The 

 appearance of these usually attracts passing flocks, which alight 

 and are shot down. Sometimes eight or ten of these painted wooden 

 ducks are fixed on a frame in various swimming postures, and 

 secured to the bow of the gunner's skiff, projecting before it in such 



B.N. i 



