WILD DUCK 



239 



betimes, returning to their safety place, and there afford sport and 

 profit. 



Thus reared ducks, like reared partridges and pheasants, differ 

 in nothing from domesticated members of their families but in 

 being given liberty as adults to become wild and unassailable other 

 than in season, and then only by duly licensed and authorized 

 persons, with the advantage all on the side of the rearers on account 

 of resort being always to the refuges. 



FIG. 132. CAPTURING WILD DUCKS IN NOOSES. 



Wild duck proper is very little seen in the close season 

 March i to August i after which it is eagerly sought after by the 

 waterside sportsman both legitimate and otherwise. The latter 

 scruples not to use glade-nets where narrow glades or ridings admit 

 of their being stretched, and wild ducks are known to fly and per- 

 chance a woodcock. Horsehair nooses attached to a string are 

 sometimes placed across a dyke or stream, and so close to the water 

 that the ducks are compelled when swimming under the string to 



