THE WILD DUCK.] 



SHOOTING, 



[the pochaed. 



into tbe river as useless. The duek-takers 

 find them convenient for their purpose, as the 

 ducks, from seeing them constantly floating 

 down the stream, esteem them as objects not 

 to be regarded. 



The Chinese make great use of ducks, but pre- 

 fer tame to wild ones. It is said that the greater 

 number of the ducks in China are hatched 

 by artificial means. The eggs, being laid in 

 boxes of sand, are placed on a brick hearth, to 

 which is given a proper heat during the time 

 required for hatching. The ducklings are fed 

 with craw-fish and crabs, boiled and cut small, 

 and afterwards mixed with boiled rice ; and, in 

 about a fortnight, they are able to shift for 

 themselves. The Chinese then provide them 

 an old step-mother, who leads them where they 

 are to find provender ; being first put on board 

 a sa7npane* or boat, which is destined for their 

 habitation; and from which the whole flock, 

 often to the amount of three or four hundred, 

 go out to feed, and return at command. This 

 method is used nine months out of the twelve ; 

 for in the colder months it does not succeed, 

 and is so far from a novelty, that it may be 

 everywhere seen; but more especially about 

 the time of cutting the rice, and gleaning tlie 

 crop, when the masters of the duck-sampanes 

 row up and down the river, according to the 

 opportunity of procuring food, which is found 

 in plenty, at the tide of ebb, on the rice plan- 

 tations, as they are overflowed at high water. 

 It is curious to observe how the ducks obey 

 their masters ; for some thousands, belonging 

 to difierent boats, will feed at large on the 

 same spot, and, on a signal given, will follow 

 their leader to their respective sampanes, 

 without a single stranger being found among 

 them. This is still more extraordinary, if we 

 consider the number of inhabited sampanes 

 on the Tigris, which have been supposed to be 

 not less than 40,000, moored in rows, close to 

 each other, with, here and there, a narrow pas- 

 sage left for boats to sail up and down the 

 river. The Tigris, at Canton, is somewhat 

 wider than the Thames at London ; and the 

 whole river is there covered in this manner 

 for upwards of a mile. 



* Sampanes is a common name for boats: the in- 

 habited ones contain each a separate family, of which 

 they are the only dwelling ; and many of the Chinese 

 pass almost their whole lives in this manner on the water. 

 588 



In Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Martin 

 Mere ; in Lancashire, in North and South 

 Wales, in Scotland, in the Fern Islands, off 

 Bambro' Castle, and in Northumberland, there 

 are countless thousands of these birds to be met 

 with in the winter season. By a recent act of 

 parliament, no wild fowl, either young or old, 

 can be legally killed from the last day of 

 March to the 1st of October. 



THE POCHARD, OR DUN-BIRD. 

 Of the Anas Ferina of Linnjeus, Mr. Daniel 

 gives us the best account : — " It is about the 

 size of a widgeon, and weighs one pound twelve 

 ounces. Its length is nineteen inches ; breadth 

 two feet and a-half ; the bill is broader than 

 the widgeon's, of a deep lead colour, with a 

 black tip ; irides orange ; the head and neck 

 orange chestnut, with a small triangular spot 

 of white under the centre of the lower man- 

 dible ; the lower parts of the neck and breast, 

 and upper part of the back, dusky black; 

 scapulars and wing-coverts, nearest the body, 

 of a grey white, elegantly marked with narrow 

 lines of black ; the exterior wing-coverts and 

 quills dusky brown; secondary quill-feathers 

 regularly edged with a stripe of white; the 

 belly ash-coloured and brown ; vent-feathers 

 and coverts of tail black ; the tail consists of 

 twelve short feathers, of a deep grey ; the legs 

 lead-coloured. The female has the head of a 

 pale reddish brown; the breast is rather of 

 a deeper colour; wing-coverts and belly 

 cinereous ; and the back marked like that o£ 

 the male. These birds are eagerly bought by 

 the London poulterers under the name of dun- 

 birds, as they are deemed excellent eating. 

 The greater part of what appear in the markets 

 are caught in decoys; but the construction 

 and mode of working are perfectly distinct 

 from that wherein the other wild fowl are 

 taken. A decoy for dun-birds is called a flight- 

 pond, and has nets fastened to tall stout poles, 

 twenty-eight or thirty feet long ; at the bottom 

 of each pole is fixed a box, filled with heavy 

 stones, sufiicient to elevate the poles and nets 

 the instant an iron pin is withdrawn, which 

 retains the nets and poles flat upon the reeds, 

 small willow boughs, or furze. In the inside of 

 the nets are small pens, made of reeds, about 

 three feet high, for the reception of the birds 

 that strike against the nets and fall down ; and 



