232 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



than ten different sorts ; and of the wild, 

 Brissou reckons above twenty. The most 

 obvious distinction between wild and tame 

 ducks is in the colour of their feet : those of 



Wild ducks inhabit Europe, Asia, and America, in 

 summer frequenting the lakes and marshes of the north, 

 and in autumn migrating southward in large bodies, 

 and spreading themselves over the lakes and marshes 

 of more temperate latitudes. Considerable numbers of 

 them return northward in spring: but many straggling 

 pairs, as well as former colonists, stay in this country 

 to rear their young, which become natives, and remain 

 throughout the year in the marshy tracts of the British 

 isles. Large flocks visit Egypt, in November after the 

 inundation of the Nile. In an opposite direction of the 

 globe, the lakes in the Orkneys form one of their great 

 resorts in winter ; and when the lakes happen to be 

 frozen, they betake themselves to the shores of the 

 islands. In these districts they may be seen in great 

 multitudes, and on the report of a gun they rise like 

 clouds. They are also known to abound on the lake of 

 Zirknitz in Carniola, where they are often swallowed 

 entire by the huge pikes which frequent that remark- 

 able piece of water. On the approach of a storm they 

 issue from the caverns in the rocks, and fly about the 

 country, where they are soon captured by the peasants ; 

 many of them are killed with clubs at the very open- 

 ings of the cavities, being dazzled by the light of day. 

 In England they abound most in the fens of Lincoln- 

 shire, where prodigious numbers are annually taken in 

 the decoys. 



Wild ducks are naturally very shy birds, and fly at a 

 considerable height in the air, in the form of a wedge or 

 triangle. Before they alight on any spot, they describe 

 several turns round it, as if to reconnoitre it, and then 

 descend with great precaution. They generally keep 

 at a distance from the shore when they swim ; and when 

 the greater part of them sleep upon the water, with 

 their heads under their wings, some of the party are 

 always awake to watch over the common safety, and to 

 apprize the sleepers of the approach of danger. The 

 extreme wariness of these birds renders much patience 

 and ingenuity necessary on the part of the fowler. 

 They rise vertically from the water with loud cries ; and 

 in the night-time their flight over head may be known 

 by the hissing noise which they make. They are more 

 active by night than by day ; indeed those that are 

 seen by day have, in general, been roused either by a 

 sportsman or by some bird of prey. 



Wild ducks breed only once in the year, the pairing- 

 time commencing about the end of February or be- 

 ginning of March, and lasting three weeks, during 

 which period each couple lives apart, concealed among 

 the reeds and bushes during the greater part of the day. 

 The female generally selects a thick tuft of bushes, 

 insulated in a pool or lake, for her breeding station, and 

 binds, cuts, and arranges the bushes in the form of a 

 nest; sometimes she makes her nest on heaths at some 

 distance from the water, scraping together a heap of 

 the nearest vegetables for the purpose: a rick of straw 

 in the fields occasionally serves her purpose. Latham 

 says, that she has even been known to lay her eggs in 

 a high tree, in the deserted nest of a magpie or crow ; 

 and he records an instance of one that was found at 

 Etchingham, in Sussex, sitting xipon nine eggs, in an 

 oak, at the height of twenty-five feet from the ground, 

 the eggs being supported by some small twigs placed 

 crosswise. The female, during the incubation, usually 

 plucks the down from her breast to line her nest, in 

 which she frequently deposits sixteen eggs, which she 

 generally covers when she leaves the nest for the purpose 

 of feeding. Whenever she returns to it, she alights at 

 some distance, and approaches it by winding paths ; 



the tame duck being yellow, those of the wild 

 duck black. The difference between wild 

 ducks among each other, arises as well from 

 their size as the nature of the place they feed 



but when she has resumed her seat she is not easily 

 induced to quit it. The male keeps watch near the 

 nest, or accompanies and protects his mate in her tem- 

 porary excursions in quest of food. All the young are 

 hatched in one day, and on the following the mother 

 leads them to the water ; or if the nest be high, or at a 

 distance from water, both parents convey them, one 

 by one, in their bills or between their legs, and they 

 are no sooner consigned to the water than they begin 

 to swim about with the greatest ease, and to feed on 

 insects. The mother-bird is a most attentive and 

 watchful parent until her young progeny are able to 

 fly: this is in about three months after their birth, and 

 in three months more they attain to their full size and 

 plumage. 



The flesh of the wild duck is more delicate and juicy, 

 and of a finer flavour, than that of the domestic. It is 

 almost every where in high estimation as an article of 

 food, and hence the ingenuity of man, in all the coun- 

 tries which it frequents, has been employed in devising 

 stratagems for the capture of this most cautious and 

 wily bird. We shall now proceed to furnish our readers 

 with an account of some of the more remarkable of 

 these stratagems. Some of the methods of capturing 

 the wild ducks in America, as described by Wilson 

 in his " American Ornithology," are among the most 

 singular resorted to in any country, and claim to be 

 noticed in this place. 



In some ponds frequented by these birds, five or six 

 wooden figures, cut and painted so as to represent ducks, 

 and sunk, by pieces of lead nailed to their bottoms so as to 

 float at the usual depth on the surface, are anchored in a 

 favourable position for being raked from a concealment 

 of brushwood, &c., on shore. The appearance of these 

 decoys usually attracts passing flocks, which alight and 

 are shot down. Sometimes eight or ten of these painted 

 ducks are fixed in a frame in various swimming pos- 

 tures, and secured to the bow r of the gunner's skiff, 

 projecting before it in such a manner that the weight 

 of the frame sinks the figures to their proper depth ; 

 the skin" is then dressed with sedge or coarse grass, in 

 an artful manner, as low as the water's edge ; and 

 under cover of this, which appears like a covey of ducks 

 swimming by a small island, the gunner floats down 

 sometimes to the very skirts of a whole congregated 

 multitude, and pours in a destructive and repeated fire 

 of shot among them. In winter, when detached pieces 

 of ice are occasionally floating in the river, some of the 

 fowlers on the Delaware paint their whole skift' or canoe 

 white, and laying themselves flat at the bottom, with 

 their hand over the side silently managing a small 

 paddle, direct it imperceptibly into or near a flock, 

 before the ducks have distinguished it from a floating 

 mass of ice, and generally do great execution amongst 

 them. A whole flock has sometimes been thus surprised 

 asleep with their heads under their wings. On land, 

 another stratagem is sometimes practised with great 

 success: a large tight hogshead is sunk in the flat 

 marsh or mud, near the place where ducks are ac- 

 customed to feed at low water, and where, otherwise, 

 there is no shelter. The edges and top are artfully 

 concealed with tufts of long coarse grass and reeds, or 

 sedge. From within this the fowler, unseen and un- 

 suspected, watches the collecting party, and, when a 

 sufficient number offers, sweeps them down with great 

 effect. 



Of the method of capturing wild ducks in the fens of 

 Lincolnshire, a particular description will be found in 

 the text, towards the close of the present chapter. See 



