Book VII. 



THE GOOSE. 



1045 



times of the day, when wild fowl are off their feed, they are equally delighted with 

 a smooth, grassy margin, to adjust and oil their plumage upon. On the close- 



pastured margins of large waters, frequented i)y wild fowl, hundreds may be seen 

 amusing themselves in this way ; and perhaps nothing draws them sooner to a water than 

 a conveniency of this kind : hence, it becomes essentially necessary to success, to provide 

 a grassy, shelving, smooth-shaven bank (1) at the mouth of the decoy, in order to 

 draw the fowl, not only to the water at large, but to the desired part of it. Having, by 

 these means, allured them to the mouth of the decoy ; the difficulties that remain are, 

 those of getting them off the bank into the water, without taking wing, and of leading 

 them up the canal to the snare which is set for them in the most easy manner. 



6744. In order to get them off the bank into the water, a dog is necessary (the more like a fox the better), 

 which should steal from behind the skreen of reeds, (2, 2,) which is placed by the side of the canal to hide the 

 decoy-man as well as his dog, until the signal be given. On seeing the dog, the ducks rush into the water ; 

 where the wild fowl consider themselves as safe from the enemy which had assailed them, and of course do 

 not take wing. Among the wild fowl, a parcel (perhaps eight or ten) of decoy-ducks should be mixed, which 

 will probably be instrumental in bringmg them, with greater confidence, to the bank. As soon as these 

 are in the water, they make for the decoy, at the head of which they have been constantly fed, and in which 

 they have always found an asylum from the dog. The wild ducks folloiv ; while the dog keeps driving 

 behind ; and, by that means, takes off their attention from the trap they are entering. When, as soon as 

 the decoy-man, who is all the while observing the operation through peep-holes in the reed skreen, sees the 

 entire shoal under a canopy net which covers and incloses the upper part of the canal, he shews himself, 

 when the wild fowl instantly take wing, but their wings meeting with an impervious net, instead of a na- 

 tural canopy, formed of reeds and bulrushes, they fall again into the water, and, being afraid to recede, the 

 man being close behind them, they push forward into the tail of the tunnel net, w hich terminates the decoy. 

 In this way, nine dozen have been caught at a time. 



6745. The form of the pipe or canal ought to resemble the outlet of a natural brook, or a natural inlet or 

 creek of the principal water. Thg mouth ought to be spacious, and free from confinement, that the wild fowl, 

 on their first rushing into the water, and while they have yet the power of recollection, maybe induced to 

 begin to follow the tame ducks ; and for the same purpose it ought to be crooked, that its inward narrow- 

 ness, and the nets, may not, in the first instance, be perceived. The lower part of a French horn is con- 

 sidered as the best form of the canal of a decoy that can be had. A material circumstance remains yet to be 

 explained. It is the invariable nature of wild fowl to take wing with their heads toward the wind ; and it is 

 always imprudent to attempt to take them in a decoy, unless the wind blow down the pipe ; for, while 

 their enemy is to leeward of them, they have less scruple to go up the pipe, making sure of an escape by 

 their wings. But, what is of still more consequence, if the wind set up the pii)e when they take wing un- 

 der the canopy net, some of them would probably escape (a circumstance always to be dreaded), and those 

 which fell again into the water, would fall, of course, with their heads toward the wind, and would, with 

 greater difficulty, be driven into the tunnel. This point is so well known by decoy-men in general, 

 that every decoy is, when circumstances will admit of it, furnished with three or four different canals, 

 pointing to distinct quarters of the horizon, that no opportunity may be lost on account of the wind being 

 in any particular point. 



6746. The goose [Anns anser, L., Jig. 724.) is a na- 

 tive of Britain, and most parts of the north of Europe, 

 but less common than the duck. The flesh of the com- 

 mon and various species of geese is highly stimulant, 

 strong in flavor, viscous, and of a putrescent tendency. 

 The flesh of the tame goose is more tender than that of 

 the wild, which tastes of fish, but either kind is only 

 adapted for good stomachs, and powerful digestion, and 



' should be s))aringly uced by the sedentary and weak, or 

 persons subject to cutaneous diseases. The fat of the 

 goose is reckoned peculiarly subtle, penetrating, and 



' resolvent, and is generally carefully preserved for do- 

 mestic applications. The goose attains to a great age, 

 3X3 



