WATER FOWL. 425 



They generally choose that part of the lake 

 where they are inaccessible to the approach of the 

 fowler, in which they all appear huddled together, 

 extremely busy and very loud. What it is can 

 employ them all the day, is not easy to guess. 

 There is no food for them at the place where 

 they sit and cabal thus, as they choose the middle 

 of the lake ; and as for courtship, the season for 

 that is not yet come ; so that it is wonderful what 

 can so busily keep them occupied. Not one of 

 them seems a moment at rest. Now pursuing one 

 another, now screaming, then all up at once, then 

 down again the whole seems one strange scene 

 of bustle with nothing to do. 



They frequently go off in a more private man- 

 ner by night to feed in the adjacent meadows and 

 ditches, which they dare not venture to approach 

 by day. In these nocturnal adventures they are 

 often taken ; for though a timorous bird, yet they 

 are easily deceived, and every springe seems to 

 succeed in taking them. But the greatest quan- 

 tities are taken in decoys, which, though well 

 known near London, are yet untried in the re- 

 moter parts of the country. The manner of mak- 

 ing and managing a decoy is as follows : 



A place is to be chosen for this purpose far re- 

 mote from the common highway, and all noise of 

 people. A decoy is best where there is a large 

 pond surrounded by a wood, and beyond that a 

 marshy and uncultivated country. When the 

 place is chosen, the pool if possible is to be plant- 

 ed round with willows, unless a wood answers the 



