TJJE MALLARD. 



Ducks in them in England, is extracted from Bewick's History 

 of British Birds, vol. ii, p. 294. 



" In the lakes where they resort," says the correspondent of 

 that ingenious author, "the most favourite haunts of the fowl 

 are observed: then in the most sequestered part of this haunt, 

 they cut a ditch about four yards across at the entrance, and 

 about fifty or sixty yards in length, decreasing gradually in 

 width from the entrance to the farther end, which is not more 

 than two feet wide. It is of a circular form, but not bending 

 much for the first ten yards. The banks of the lake, for about 

 ten yards on each side of this ditch (or pipe, as it is called) are 

 kept clear from reeds, coarse herbage, &c. in order that the 

 fowl may get on them to sit and dress themselves. Across this 

 ditch, poles on each side, close to the edge of the ditch, are 

 driven into the ground, and the tops bent to each other and tied 

 fast. These poles at the entrance form an arch, from the top 

 of which to the water is about ten feet. This arch is made to 

 decrease in height, as the ditch decreases in width, till the far- 

 ther end is not more than eighteen inches in height. The poles 

 are placed about six feet from each other, and connected togeth- 

 er by poles laid lengthwise across the arch and tied together. 

 Over them a net with meshes sufficiently small to prevent the 

 fowl getting through, is thrown across, and made fast to a reed 

 fence at the entrance, and nine or ten yards up the ditch t and 

 afterwards strongly pegged to the ground. At the farther end 

 of the pipe, a tunnel net, as it is called, is fixed, 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 of the pipe to be to the right, when you stand with 

 your back to the lake, on the left hand side a number of reed 

 fences are constructed, called shootings, for the purpose of 

 screening from sight the decoy -man, and in such a manner, 

 that the fowl in the decoy may not be alarmed, while he is 

 driving those in the pipe: these shootings are about four yards 

 in length, and about six feet high, and are ten in number. They 



