WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 385 



ticularly on the river Somme, where it is customary to wait for 

 the flocks passing over certain places ; when the sportsman, 

 having a wicker cage containing a quantity of tame birds, lets 

 out one at a time, which alluring the passers-by within gun-shot, 

 five or six may be sometimes killed at one shot, They are also 

 taken by baited hooks, which the birds swallow while swimming 

 on the water. The most curious mode, however, of taking wild- 

 ducks is in India, and frequently practised on the river Ganges, 

 where these birds are very numerous : A person wades into 

 the water up to his chin ; and, haying his head covered with an 

 empty calabash, approaches the place where the ducks are swim- 

 ming; the latter, not at all suspicious of an object of this kind, 

 suffer the man freely to mix with the flock, when he seizes them 

 by the legs, and pulls them under the water, one after another, 

 till he has secured as many as he can attach to his belt ; and 

 returns as unsuspected by the remainder as when he first came 

 amongst them. The number of calabashes which are constantly 

 floating down the river render the ducks perfectly familiar to 

 the sight of them hence the reason why the duck taker is ena- 

 bled so easily to approach them ; but the method just described 

 is not practicable either in very shallow or very deep water. 



Wild-geese breed in the extensive fens of Lincolnshire and 

 Cambridgeshire : the greater part, however, which are seen in 

 this country retire to more northerly situations for the purpose 

 of propagation. They may be frequently seen in large flocks, 

 flying at a very great height ; and their cry is sometimes heard, 

 while the birds themselves are imperceptible from their distance 

 above. They are extremely difficult of approach. When on 

 the ground, they appear to station a sort of sentinel, which, on 

 the least suspicion, sounds a long loud note of alarm, on which 

 the whole instantly take wing. Their flight appears to be con- 

 ducted with great regularity ; which not only excites the curi- 

 osity of the country people, but calls into action their inventive 

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