DUCK-DECOYS. 209 



are concealed in the rushes, until the moment, when 

 after many hours of cautious labour, one of the 

 dense columns of Ducks, which blacken at times the 

 surface of the lake, is driven by the distant canoes 

 of his associates sufficiently near to the fatal spot. 

 The double tier of guns is immediately fired, and the 

 water remains strewed with the bodies of the killed 

 and wounded, whose escape is cut off by the circle 

 of canoes beyond. Twelve hundred Ducks are 

 often brought in as the result of a single attack ; 

 and during the whole season they form the ordinary 

 food of the lower classes in the town of Mexico, 

 where they are sold for a trifling sum. 



We have alluded to decoys as the great source of 

 profit and supply with respect to wild-fowl ; and with 

 an account of them we shall conclude the history of 

 Ducks. A decoy is generally situated in a marsh, 

 so as to be surrounded with wood or reeds, and if 

 possible, with both, to keep the water quiet, and 

 that the repose of the wild-fowl may not be inter- 

 rupted. A certain number of Decoy-Ducks is 

 then provided, consisting of wild ones, which are 

 bred for the purpose, and which, although they fly 

 abroad, regularly return for food to the decoy- waters, 

 and of tame ones, which never quit the water, and 

 are regularly trained to act their part. Their food 

 consists of hemp-seed, oats, and buck-wheat. In 

 what is called working the decoy, the hemp-seed is 

 thrown in small quantities over screens, made of 

 reeds, to allure the birds forwards towards the pipes, 

 or wicker channels, of which there are several, 

 leading up a narrow ditch, closing at last with a 

 funnel-net. Over these pipes, which grow narrower 



YOL. II. P 



