2 QO BRITISH BIRDS. 



beginning of winter in large flocks, and spread 

 themselves over all the loughs and marshy wastes 

 in the British Isles. They pair in the spring, when 

 the greater part of them again retire northward to 

 breed; but many pairs stay with us: they, as well 

 as preceding colonists of their tribes, remain to 

 rear their young, who become natives, and con- 

 tinue with us throughout the year. 



Many and various are the contrivances which 

 have been used, in both ancient and modern times, 

 to catch these wild, shy, and wary birds; and from 

 the avidity with which the sport is still followed, it 

 is hardly necessary to observe how highly they are 

 esteemed, and what place they hold as a delicacy 

 on the table. To describe these various con- 

 trivances would swell out this part of their history 

 beyond its proper limits; and Willoughby, Buffon, 

 Pennant, Latham, and others have left little new 

 to add on this head. It will not be proper, how- 

 ever, to omit noticing the decoy, which from its 

 superiority over every other method, promises to 

 continue long in use; for in that mode the Mallard 

 and other Ducks are taken by thousands at a time ; 

 whereas all the other schemes of lying in ambush, 

 shooting, baited hooks, wading in the water with 

 the head covered in a perforated wooden vessel,* 



* This method of taking Wild Geese or Ducks is represented, as 

 well as those anciently in use, of taking almost every kind of wild 

 animals, in an old folio book, consisting of one hundred and five en- 

 gravings, by Collaert and others, from the paintings of Johannes 

 Stradanus. The wooden vessel which conceals the head of the 

 fowler is there represented, as it were, floating about among the 

 unsuspecting flocks, while with his hand the dexterous sportsman is 

 pulling all those within his reach, one after another, by the legs 

 under water. This method is still practised in China. 



