306 NATATORES. ANAS. Witp Ducr. 
our lakes and rivers, with such upland boggy grounds as 
have not yet been submitted to the system of drainage that 
has of late years so altered the face of the country. These 
changes in the character of the soil, have of course produced 
a great, and, I may add, annual decrease of our native breed, 
which must progressively happen as long as the causes pro- 
ducing it are in operation. It is probable, therefore, that m 
a few years the Common Wild Duck will become compara- 
tively rare as an indigenous species, except in some few lo- 
calities that may bid defiance to agricultural improvement. 
In such case, the deficiency will, during the winter months, 
be supplied in part by additional arrivals from the more 
northern countries, to which this bird will naturally resort 
for the purpose of reproduction, under more favourable aus- 
pices *. The estimation in which the flesh of the Wild 
Duck, both for delicacy and flavour, has ever been held at 
the table, has caused various devices to be resorted to for 
its capture, of which none appear to be so effectual as the 
decoy +. It is by this method that the greatest part of the 
birds annually sent to the London market are taken, and 
its practice is allowed from October till February. In ten 
of these decoys in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet, it is re- 
corded that 31,200 wild fowl were taken in one season, of 
* Some idea of the quantity of Wild Ducks formerly produced in 
England, may be formed from Prnnant’s account, viz. that at a single 
driving of the fens of Lincolnshire, before the young had taken wing, and 
when the old birds were in the moult, one hundred and fifty dozens had 
been taken! The same district at the present time does not produce per- 
haps a dozen broods in the year. 
+ For an accurate description of a decoy, I refer my readers to that 
by Mr BonrE.tow, given in the second volume of “ Brwrcx’s British 
Birds” (under the article Wild Duck), and also copied into “ SHaw’s Ge- 
neral Zoology,” and “ Wiison’s North American Ornithology.” Wi- 
Loucusy and PEnnanr also give descriptions of this device, but not so 
detailed as that of Mr Bonrettow. For an illustration and description 
of the French mode of shooting from a hut, and for some particulars rela- 
tive to decoy-birds, see Colonel Hawker’s amusing “ Instructions to Young 
Sportsmen.” 
