WATER BIRDS. 



Method of Capturing Wild Ducks in the Fens of Lincolnshire. 



In the lakes to which the Wild Ducks resort, the most favorite haunts are -observed. Then, in the se- 

 questered part of this haunt, a ditch is cut, which is about four yards across at the entrance, and decreases 

 gradually in width from the entrance to the farthest end, which is more than two feet wide. The ditch is 

 of a circular form, but does not bend much for the first ten yards. The banks of the lake on each side of 

 this ditch ("or pipe," as it is called) are kept clear from reeds, and coarse herbage, in order that the fowls 

 may get on them to sit and dress themselves. Along the ditch poles arc driven into the ground, close to 

 its edge, on each side, and the tops are bent over across the ditch, and tied together. These poles, thus 

 bent, form at the entrance of the ditch or pipe an arch, the top of which is ten feet distant from the sur- 

 face of the water. This pipe is made to decrease in height as the pipe decreases in width, so that the remote 

 end is not more than eighteen inches in height. The poles are placed about six-feet from each other, and 

 connected by poles laid lengthwise across the arch and tied together. Over the whole is thrown a net, 

 which is made fast to a reed-fence at the -entrance and nine or ten yards up the ditch, and afterwards 

 strongly pegged to the ground. At the end of the pipe farthest from the entrance is fixed a " tunnel net," 

 as it is called, about four yards in length, of a round form, and kept open by a number of hoops, about 

 eighteen inches in diameter, placed at a small distance from each other to keep it distended. Supposing 

 the circular bend to be to the right when one stands with his bask to the lake, then on the left hand side 

 a number of reed fences are constructed, called " shootings," for the purpose of screening the " decoy-man" 

 from observation, and in such a manner that the fowl in the decoy may not be alarmed while he is driving 

 those that are in the pipe. These shootings, which are ten in number, are about four yards in length, and 

 about six feet high. From the end of the last " shooting," a person cannot see the lake, owing to the bend 

 of the pipes, and there is no further occasion for shelter. Were it not for these "shootings," the fowl that 

 remained about the mouth of the pipe would be alarmed if the person driving the fowl already under the 



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