394 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



days successively, the fowler goes to the lake in early morn, with 

 his head disguised in one of the totumos ; and, observing all 

 possible stillness and precaution, he contrives to swim or creep among 

 the birds ; when he pulls them down under water, and secures them 

 to his girdle,* after the same manner as that pursued by the Indians 

 and Chinese. 



Bewick speaks of this peculiar art of capturing wild-fowl as 

 attended with much watching, toil, and fatigue ; and comparatively 

 trifling in point of success. 



The Arabs are also awake to a similar mode of disguising the 

 head, and wading neck-deep in pursuit of wild-fowl ; but instead of 

 a gourd or calabash, the Arabian fowler simply piles a few handfuls 

 of sea-weed upon his head; and in that excellent disguise, approaches 

 wild-fowl by wading up to his ears, when he snatches them under 

 water one after another; whilst their companions are quite unconscious 

 of the presence of the fowler, much less of the destruction he deals 

 among them.t 



* Ulloa's Voyage to South America. 



f Travels in Arabia ; by Carsten Niebuhr. 



