THK MALLARD. 301 



ing them along till they come to the tunnel net, where they 

 creep in: when they are all in, he gives the net a twist, so as to 

 prevent their getting back: he then takes the net off from the 

 end of the pipe with what fowl he may have caught, and takes 

 them out one at a time, and dislocates their necks and hangs 

 the net on again; and all is ready for working again. 



"In this manner five or six dozen have been taken at one 

 drift. When the wind blows directly in or out of the pipe, the 

 fowl seldom work well, especially when it blows in. If many 

 pipes are made in a lake, they should be so constructed as to 

 suit different winds. 



"Duck and Mallard are taken from August to June. Teal 

 or Wigeon, from October to March. Becks, Smee, Golden Eyes, 

 Arps, Cricks, and Pintails or Sea Pheasants, in March and April. 



" Poker Ducks are seldom taken, on account of their diving 

 and getting back in the pipe. 



It may be proper to observe here, that the Ducks feed during 

 the night, and that all is ready prepared for this sport in the 

 evening. The better to entice the Ducks into the pipe, hemp 

 seed is strewed occasionally on the water. The season allowed 

 by act of parliament for catching these birds in this way, is from 

 the latter end of October till February. 



"Particular spots or decoys, in the fen countries, are let to 

 the fowlers at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum; 

 and Pennant instances a season in which thirty-one thousand 

 two hundred Ducks, including Teals and Wigeons, were sold 

 in London only, from ten of these decoys near Wainfleet, in 

 Lincolnshire. Formerly, according to Willoughby, the Ducks, 

 while in moult and unable to fly, were driven by men in boats, 

 furnished with long poles, with which they splashed the water 

 between long nets, stretched vertically across the pools, in the 

 shape of two sides of a triangle, into lesser nets placed at the 

 point; and in this way, he says, four thousand were taken at one 

 driving in Deeping-Fen; and Latham has quoted an instance of 

 two thousand six hundred and forty-six being taken in two days, 

 near Spalding in Lincolnshire; but this manner of catching them 

 while in moult is now prohibited." 



