88 WILD DUCK. 



and when a sufficient number offers, sweeps them 

 down with great effect." 



But these methods, which require much watching, 

 toil, and fatigue, are vastly inferior to the decoys 

 used in England, particularly in the fens of Lincoln- 

 shire, where many thousands are taken at a time. 

 The following is Bewick's circumstantial account of 

 them. 



" In the lakes where they resort, the most favourite 

 haunts of the fowl are observed : then in the most 

 sequestered part of this haunt they cut a ditch about 

 four yards across at the entrance, and about fifty or 

 sixty yards in length, decreasing gradually in width 

 from the entrance to the farther end, which is not 

 more than two feet wide. It is of a circular form, 

 but not bending much for the first ten yards. The 

 banks of the lake, for about ten yards on each side 

 of this ditch (or pipe, as it is called) are kept clear 

 from reeds, coarse herbage, &c. in order that the fowl 

 may get on them to sit and dress themselves. Across 

 this ditch, poles on each side, close to the edge of 

 the ditch, are driven into the ground, and the tops 

 bent to each other, and tied fast. These poles at 

 the entrance form an arch, from the top of which to 

 the water is about ten feet. This arch is made to 

 decrease in height, as the ditch decreases in width, 

 till the farther end is not more than eighteen inches 

 in height. The poles are placed about six feet from 

 each other, and connected together by poles laid 

 lengthwise across the arch and tied together. Over 

 them a net with meshes sufficiently small to permit 



