THE MALLARD. 189 



country where it frequents, has been employed in 

 inventing stratagems to overreach these wary birds, and 

 procure a delicacy for the table. To enumerate all 

 these various contrivances would far exceed our limits ; 

 a few, however, of the most simple and effective may 

 be mentioned. 



In some ponds frequented by these birds, five or six 

 wooden figures, cut and painted so as to represent ducks, 

 and sunk, by pieces of lead nailed on their bottoms, so 

 as to float at the usual depth on the surface, are 

 anchored in a favourable position for being raked from 

 a concealment of brush, &c. on shore. The appearance 

 of these usually attracts passing flocks, which alight, 

 and are shot down. Sometimes eight or ten of these 

 painted wooden ducks are fixed on a frame in various 

 swimming postures, and secured to the bow of the 

 gunner's skiff, projecting before it in such a manner 

 that the weight of the frame sinks the figures to their 

 proper depth j the skiff is then dressed with sedge or 

 coarse grass in an artful manner, as low as the water's 

 edge ; and under cover of this, which appears like a 

 party of ducks swimming by a small island, the gunner 

 floats down sometimes to the very skirts of a whole 

 congregated multitude, and pours in a destructive and 

 repeated fire of shot among them. In winter, when 

 detached pieces of ice are occasionally floating in the 

 river, some of the gunners on the Delaware paint their 

 whole skiff or canoe white, and, laying themselves flat 

 at the bottom, with their hand over the side, silently 

 managing a small paddle, direct it imperceptibly into or 

 near a flock, before the ducks have distinguished it from 

 a floating mass of ice, and generally do great execution 

 among them. A whole flock has sometimes been thus 

 surprised asleep, with their heads under their wings. 

 On land, another stratagem is sometimes practised with 

 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 tops are artfully 

 concealed with tufts of long coarse grass and reeds or 



