SEA-POWL SHOOTING. 133 



Mere, in Lancasliire, in North and Soiitli Wales, in Scotland, in 

 the Fern Islands, off Bambro Castle, in Northumberland, there are 

 countless thousands of these birds to be met with in the winter 

 season. It is necessary to observe that, by a recent Act of Parlia- 

 ment, no Avild-fowl, either young or old, can be legally killed from 

 the last day of March to the first of October. 



TiiQ Pochard, or Lunbird (Ancfs Ferina, Linn.)— Mr. Daniel gives 

 us the best account of this bird: — "It is about the size of a 

 widgeon, weighs one j^ound twelve ounces ; its length is nineteen 

 inclies ; breadth two teet and a half j the biU is broader than the 

 widgeon's, of a deep lead colour, with a black tip • irides orange ; 

 the head and neck orange chestnut, with a small triangular spot of 

 white under the centre of the lower mandible ; the lower parts of 

 the neck and breast, and upper part of the back, dusky black; 

 scapulars and wing-coverts nearest the jpody of a gray white, 

 elegantly marked with narrow lines of black ; the exterior wing- 

 coverts and quills dusky brown ; secondary quill-feathers regularly 

 edged Avith a stripe of white ; the beUy ash-coloured and brown ; 

 vent-feathers and coverts of tail black ; the tail consists of twelve 

 short feathers of a deep gray ; the legs lead-coloui-ed. The female 

 has the head of a pale reddish brovm ; the breast is rather of a 

 deeper colour ; w4ug-coverts and beUy cinereous ; and the back 

 marked like that of the male. These birds are eagerly bought by the 

 London poulterers under the name of dun birds, as they are deemed 

 excellent eating ; the greater part of what appear iu the markets 

 are caught in decoys ; but the construction and mode oi working 

 are perfectly distinct from that whereiu the other wild-fowl are 

 taken. A decoy for dun birds is called a flight-pond, and has nets 

 fastened to tall stout poles, twenty-eight or tliirty feet long ; at the 

 bottom of each pole is fixed a box, filled with heavy stones, siiffi- 

 cient to elevate the poles and nets the iustant an iron pin is with- 

 drawn, which retains the nets and poles flat upon the reeds, small 

 willow boughs, or furze. Within side the nets are small pens, 

 made of reeds about three feet high, for the reception of the birds 

 that strike agaiust the nets and fall down ; and such is the form 

 and shortness of the wing of the pochard, that they cannot ascend 

 again from these httle inclosures if they would ; besides, the num- 

 bers which are usually knocked into these pens, preclude all 

 chance of escape from them by the wing. A decoy-man will some- 

 times allow the haunt of dun birds to be so great that the whole 

 sui'fac-e of the pond shall be covered with them previous to his 

 attempting to take one. Upon such occasions he bespeaks all the 

 assistance he can get, to complete the slaughter by breaking their 

 necks. When all is ready, the dun birds are roused from the 

 pond, and as all wild-fowl rise against the wind, the poles in that 

 quarter are unpinned, and fly up with the nets at the instant the 

 dun birds begin to leave the surface of the water, so as to meet 

 them in their first ascent • and they are thus beat down by hun- 

 dreds. At the pond of Mr. Baxton, at Goldanger in Essex, as 



