WATER-FOWL. 



601 



danger, and would return back ; but they 

 are now prevented by the man, who shows 

 himself at the broad end below. Thither, 

 therefore, they dare not return; and rise 

 they may not, as they are kept by the net 

 above from ascending. The only way left 

 them, therefore, is the narrow-funnelled net 

 at the bottom; into this they fly, and there 

 they are taken. 



It often happens, however, that the wild- 

 fowl are in such a state of sleepiness or do- 

 zing, that they will not follow the decoy- 

 ducks. Use is then generally tnadeof a dog, 

 who is taught his lesson. He passes back- 

 ward and forward between the reed-hedges, 

 in which there are little holes, both for the 

 decoy-man to see, and for the little dog to pass 

 through. This attracts the eye of the wild- 

 fowl ; who, prompted by curiosity, advance 

 towards this little animal, while he all the 

 time keeps playing among the reeds, nearer 

 and nearer the funnel, till they follow him too 

 far to recede. Sometimes the dog will not 

 attract their attention till a red handkerchief, 

 or something very singular, be put about 

 him. The decoy-ducks never enter the fun- 

 nel-net with the rest, being taught to dive 

 under water as soon as the rest are driven 



in. 



The general season for catching fowl in 

 decoys is from the latter end of October till 

 February. The taking them earlier is pro- 

 hibited by an act of George the Second, 

 which imposes a penalty of five shillings for 

 every bird destroyed at any other season. 



The Lincolnshire decoys are commonly 

 let at a certain annual rent, from five pounds 

 to twenty pounds a year; and some even 

 amount to thirty. These principally con- 

 tribute to supply the markets of London with 

 wild-fowl. The number of ducks, widgeon, 

 and teal, that are sent thither is amazing. 

 Above thirty thousand have been sent up in 

 one season from ten decoys in the neighbour- 

 hood of Wainfleet. This quantity makes 

 them so cheap on the spot, that it is asserted, 

 that several decoy-men would be glad to con- 



tract for years to deliver their ducks at the 

 next town for ten-pence the couple. 



To this manner of taking the wild-fowl in 

 England, I will subjoin another, still more ex- 

 traordinary, frequently practised in China. 

 Whenever the fowler sees a number of ducks 

 settled in any particular plash of water, he 

 sends off two or three gourds to float among 

 them. These gourds resemble our pompi- 

 ons ; but, being made hollow, they swim on 

 the surface of the water ; and on one pool 

 there may sometimes be seen twenty or thirty 

 of these gourds floating together. The fowl 

 at first are a little shy of coming near them ; 

 but by degrees they come nearer ; and as all 

 birds at last grow familiar with a scare-crow, 

 the ducks gather about these, and amuse 

 themselves by whetting their bills against 

 them. When the birds are as familiar with 

 the gourds as the fowler could wish, he then 

 prepares to deceive them in good earnest. 

 He hollows out one of these gourds large 

 enough to put his head in ; and, making holes 

 to breath and see through, he claps it on his 

 head. Thus accoutred, he wades slowly 

 into the water, keeping his body under, and 

 nothing but his head in the gourd above the 

 surface ; and in that manner moves imper- 

 ceptibly towards the fowls, who suspect no 

 danger. At last, however, he fairly gets in 

 among them ; while they, having been long 

 used to see gourds, take not the least fright 

 while the enemy is in the very midst of them: 

 and an insidious enemy he is; for ever as he 

 approaches a fowl, he seizes it by the legs, 

 and draws it in a jerk under water. There 

 he fastens it under his girdle, and goes to 

 the next, till he has thus loaded himself with 

 as many as he can carry away. When he 

 has got his quantity, without ever attempting 

 to disturb the rest of the fowls on the pool, 

 he slowly moves off again ; and in this man- 

 ner pays the flock three or four visits in a 

 day. Of all the various artifices for catching 

 fowl, this seems likely to be attended with 

 the greatest success, as it is the most prac- 

 tised in China. 



