THE WILD DUCK. 301 



irides, orange ; the head and neck deep chesnut, with 

 a small triangular spot of white under the centre of 

 the lower mandible ; the lower part of the neck and 

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

 scapulars and wing-coverts, nearest the body, of a 

 greyish white, elegantly marked with narrow lines of 

 black; the exterior wing-coverts and belly, ash 

 coloured and brown ; vent feathers and coverts of tail, 

 black; the tail consists of short feathers, twelve in 

 number, of a deep grey; the legs, lead coloured; 

 secondary quill feathers, regularly edged with a stripe 

 of white. The female has the head of a pale reddish 

 brown ; the breast is rather of a deeper colour ; wing- 

 coverts and belly cinereous ; the back marked like that 

 of the male. They are excellent eating. A decoy for 

 dunbirds is called a flight-pond, and has nets fastened 

 to tall stout poles, twenty-eight or thirty feet long ; 

 at the bottom of each pole is a box fixed, filled with 

 heavy stones, sufficient to elevate the poles and nets 

 the instant an iron pin is withdrawn, which retains 

 the nets and poles flat upon the reeds, small willow 

 boughs, or furze. Withinside the nets are small 

 pens, made of reeds, about three feet high, for the 

 reception of birds that strike against the nets, and 

 fall down ; and such is the form and shortness of 

 wing in the packards, that they cannot ascend again 

 from these little enclosures if they would; besides, 

 the numbers, which are usually knocked into these 

 pens, preclude all chance of escape from them by the 

 wing. A decoyman will sometimes allow the haunt 



