LETTER LI1. 



are chiefly supplied with this delicate fowl. It is 

 said that upwards of thirty thousand clucks, widgeon, 

 and teal, have been sent up to the metropolis from 

 the ctacoys in the vicinity of Wainfleet; a circum- 

 stance that evidently proves the great importance of 

 this valuable fowl, which furnish.es our tables with so 

 excellent an article of food, and shews how profusely 

 heaven has provided for our support and comfortable 

 subsistence. 



To this manner of taking wild ducks in England I 

 will, my dear Sir, for your entertainment, subjoin an 

 account of another still more extraordinary, which is 

 practised in China, and is so exceedingly curious that 

 it deserves to be mentioned. 



As soon as the fowler sees a number of ducks 

 settled on a particular piece of shallow water, he 

 scn.ds among them a number o gourds, which resem- 

 ble our pumkins. These, having the insides scooped 

 out, easily swim, and sometimes twenty or thirty of 

 them are seen floating in one pool. The birds are at 

 first fearful of approaching them; but by degrees 

 their shyness wears ofij they become familiarized to 

 the sight* gather about them, and rub their bills 

 against them in sportive playfulness. As soon as the 

 fowler perceives them perfectly fearless of the gourds, 

 he prepares to deceive them. He hollows out a 

 gourd large enough to contain his head, makes holes 

 in it, to see and breathe through, and then puts it on 

 like a cap. Being thus accoutred, he wades slowly 

 into the water, stooping and creeping where it is 

 shallow, and always taking care that nothing but his 

 head shall appear above the surface. In this manner 

 moving unperceived towards the unsuspecting birds, 

 he gets in among them, while they, having been al- 

 ready accustomed to the sight of the gourds, appre- 

 hend no danger when the enemy is in the very midst 

 of them. He then begins his operations by seizing 

 a duck by the legs, and instantly drawing it under 

 the water before it has time to cry or give the alarm 

 to the rest; he fastens it to his girdle, and approach- 

 ing another serves it in the same manner, and thus^ 



