306 NATATORES. ANAS. WILD DUCK. 



our lakes and rivers, with such upland boggy grounds as 

 have not yet been submitted to the system of drainage that 

 has of late years so altered the face of the country. These 

 changes in the character of the soil, have of course produced 

 a great, and, I may add, annual decrease of our native breed, 

 which must progressively happen as long as the causes pro- 

 ducing it are in operation. It is probable, therefore, that in 

 a few years the Common Wild Duck will become compara- 

 tively rare as an indigenous species, except in some few lo- 

 calities that may bid defiance to agricultural improvement. 

 In such case, the deficiency will, during the winter months, 

 be supplied in part by additional arrivals from the more 

 northern countries, to which this bird will naturally resort 

 for the purpose of reproduction, under more favourable aus- 

 pices *. The estimation in which the flesh of the Wild 

 Duck, both for delicacy and flavour, has ever been held at 

 the table, has caused various devices to be resorted to for 

 its capture, of which none appear to be so effectual as the 

 decoy -f-. It is by this method that the greatest part of the 

 birds annually sent to the London market are taken, and 

 its practice is allowed from October till February. In ten 

 of these decoys in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet, it is re- 

 corded that 31,200 wild fowl were taken in one season, of 



* Some idea of the quantity of Wild Ducks formerly produced in 

 England, may be formed from PENNANT'S account, viz. that at a single 

 driving of the fens of Lincolnshire, before the young had taken wing, and 

 when the old birds were in the moult, one hundred and fifty dozens had 

 been taken ! The same district at the present time does not produce per- 

 haps a dozen broods in the year. 



f- For an accurate description of a decoy, I refer my readers to that 

 by Mr BONFELLOW, given in the second volume of " BEWICK'S British 

 Birds" (under the article Wild Duck), and also copied into " SHAW'S Ge- 

 neral Zoology," and " WILSON'S North American Ornithology." WIL- 

 LOUGHBY and PENNANT also give descriptions of this device, but not so 

 detailed as that of Mr BONFELLOW. For an illustration and description 

 of the French mode of shooting from a hut, and for some particulars rela- 

 tive to decoy-birds, see Colonel HAWKER'S amusing " Instructions to Young 

 Sportsmen." 



