^9JS THE MALLARD 



great success. A large tight hogshead is sunk in the flat marsh, 

 or mud, near the place where Ducks are accustomed to feed at 

 low water, and where otherwise there is no shelter; the edges 

 and top are artfully concealed with tufts of long coarse grass and 

 reeds, or sedge. From within this the gunner, unseen and un- 

 suspected, watches his collecting prey, and when a sufficient 

 number offers, sweeps them down with great effect The mode 

 of catching Wild Ducks, as practised in India,* China,! the is- 

 land of Ceylon, and some parts of South America, J has been 

 often described, and seems, if reliance may be placed on those 

 accounts, only practicable in water of a certain depth. The 

 sportsman covering his head with a hollow wooden vessel or 

 calabash, pierced with holes to see through, wades into the wa- 

 ter, keeping his head only above, and thus disguised, moves in 

 among the flock, which take the appearance to be a mere float- 

 ing calabash, while suddenly pulling them under by the legs, 

 he fastens them to his girdle, and thus takes as many as he can 

 conveniently stow away, without in the least alarming the rest. 

 They are also taken with snares made of horse hair, or with 

 hooks baited with small pieces of sheep's lights, which floating 

 on the surface, are swallowed by the ducks, and with them the 

 hooks. They are also approached under cover of a stalking horse, 

 or a figure formed of thin boards or other proper materials, and 

 painted so as to represent a horse or ox. But all these methods 

 require much watching, toil, and fatigue, and their success is but 

 trifling when compared with that of the Decoy now used both in 

 France and En gland, || which, from its superiority over every oth- 

 er mode, is well deserving the attention of persons of this country 

 residing in the neighbourhood of extensive marshes frequented 

 by Wild Ducks; as, by this method. Mallard and other kinds 

 may be taken by thousands at a time. The following circum- 

 stantial account of these decoys, and the manner of taking Wild 



* Naval Chron. vol. ii, p. 473. f Du Halde, Hist. China, vol. ii, p. 142. 

 J Ulloa's Voy. I, p. 53. || Particularly in Picardy, in the former 



country, and Lincolnshire in the latter. 



