236 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



ther, 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 doz- 

 ing, that they will not follow the decoy-ducks. 

 Use is then generally made of a dog, who is 

 taught his lesson. He passes backward 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 play- 

 ing among the reeds, nearer and nearer the 

 funnel, till they follow him too far to recede. 

 Sometimes the dog will not attract their atten- 

 tion till a red handkerchief, or something very 

 singular, be put about him. The decoy-ducks 

 never enter the funnel-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 de- 

 coys is from the latter end of October till Fe- 

 bruary. The taking them earlier is prohibi- 

 ted 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 contribute to sup- 

 ply 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 neighbourhood of 

 Wainfleet. This quantity makes them so 

 cheap on the spot, that it is asserted, that se- 

 veral decoy-men would be glad to contract for 

 years to deliver their ducks at the next town 

 for ten pence the couple. 1 



To this manner of taking the wild-fowl in 

 England, I will subjoin another, still more 

 extraordinary, 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 pompions ; 

 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 them- 



1 They have now become comparatively rare. 



selves by whetting their bills against them. 

 When the birds are as familiar with the 

 gourds as the fowler could wish, he then pre- 

 pares to deceive them in good earnest. He 

 hollows out one of these gourds large enough 

 to put his head in ; and making holes to 

 breathe and see through, he claps it on his 

 head. Thus accoutred, he wades slowly into 

 the water, keeping his body under, and no- 

 thing 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 manner 

 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 practised in 

 China. 



CHAP. XIII. 



OF THE KING-FISHER. 1 



I WILL conclude this history of birds with 

 one that seems to unite in itself somewhat of 

 every class preceding. It seems at once pos- 

 sessed of appetites for prey like the rapacious 

 kinds, with an attachment to water like the 

 birds of that element. It exhibits in its form 

 the beautiful plumage of the peacock, the 

 shadings of the humming-bird, the bill of the 

 crane, and the short legs of the swallow. The 

 bird I mean is the King-fisher, of which 

 many extraordinary falsehoods have been pro- 

 pagated ; and yet of which many extraordinary 

 things remain to be said that are actually true. 



The King-fisher is not much larger than a 

 swallow; its shape is clumsy; the legs dis- 

 proportionably small, and the bill dispropor- 

 tionably long: it is two inches from the 

 base to the tip; the upper chap black, and 

 the lower yellow : but the colours of this 

 bird atone for its inelegant form ; the crown 

 of the head and the coverts of the wings 

 are of a deep blackish green, spotted with 



1 There are now known forty-two species of king- 

 fishers, and of some of these several varieties. 



