XV111 INTRODUCTION. 



soon acquires an art, of which the precepts are so impressive, that, 

 when once learnt, it is learnt for ever j and the most unlettered indi- 

 vidual, with common perceptions, becomes an adept. 



It may be imagined a very tantalizing situation, to be placed in a 

 land where hundreds of wild-fowl are daily in the habit of thronging 

 the inland waters, and yet to find oneself so far removed from in- 

 genuity, as to be unable to capture a bird ; whilst they might afford 

 the most abundant and inviting table-luxuries in the country. An 

 individual in such a position would naturally ask himself, as he gazed 

 from day to day upon the feathered occupants of the waters, " How 

 are the difficulties I see before me to be overcome ? How are these 

 birds to be taken ?" It is our purpose, in these pages, to explain to 

 him, not only how and when to pursue them, but how to take them 

 alive, in large numbers : and, whether on the open waters, savannahs, 

 or otherwise, to shoot them, both by night and day. 



The flight-pond, with the curious and interesting proceedings con- 

 nected with it, has hitherto, as a subject of literary diversion, remained 

 in obscurity j no author having ever attempted an explanation, be- 

 yond the few unintelligible remarks (evidently theoretical), occupy- 

 ing but a few lines, in vol. iii. of Daniel's " Rural Sports,"* and which 

 are so cramped and inaccurate that they tend rather to mislead than 

 instruct the enquirer yet, strange to say, they appear to have been 

 copied and recopied by subsequent writers, as their only text upon 

 the subject.f I therefore claim originality upon this head; and hope, 

 by the readiest means in my power, to lay before my readers a full 

 description of the quaint contrivances which have been invented by 

 our forefathers for capturing a cunning and whimsical species of wild- 

 fowl, which defied the efforts of the most experienced decoyers ; but 

 which fell victims by thousands to another means, as ingenious, 

 though simple, as the decoy. 



* And these appear to have been borrowed from Montague's " Ornithology." 



f Professor Yarrell, in his book of " British Birds," mentions the flight-pond ; 



but he approaches the subject with the same uncertainty, and throws no new light 



upon it. 



