402 FRENCH HUT-SHOOTING. 



them to Lord Rodney, for his beautiful pond at Aires- 

 ford, Mr. Sparry, the bailiff, in order to secure them, 

 for the night on which they came, put them within 

 a few hurdles, close before his house. When he got 

 up in the morning, no sooner did he open his door than 

 a number of wild-ducks flew up from within the little 

 fence he had made, and into which these birds, of 

 course, had enticed them. Several tame ducks had 

 constantly been in, and all about, the place ; but these 

 had never decoyed the wild birds, in the manner that 

 had been done by the Frenchmen *. These birds have 

 since bred so well as to stock the whole pond ; and, by 

 their progeny being fed, when young, with oats on a 

 drum-head, they will now fly in, from all parts, and 

 muster, like soldiers, to a roll of the drum! [Should 

 this, like the shot of starlings, be thought a touch of 

 the Alresford marvellous, I only beg of the sceptic to 

 appeal, for the truth of it, to any one in Alresford, from 

 Lord Rodney himself, down to the very labourers of 

 the place.] 



If the hut system is adopted, two or three huts 

 should be made, and then the hutter has a choice which 

 to take, according to the light and the wind. [Vide 

 plate.] 



Critic. Why have you put all your call birds one 

 way? 



* I sent a dozen French ducks to the Regent's Park ; and, the 

 winter before last, I observed that they had there decoyed at least 

 thirty wildfowl : wigeon tufted ducks and dunbirds. This was, 

 of course, a great novelty in the very smoke of London. But, on 

 my return to town, after last winter, I do not remember to have 

 seen any. Perhaps the skating may have driven the wild birds off: 

 or perhaps the last winter was too severe for them to remain in 

 fresh water. 



