238 THE STALKING-HORSE. 



" Claps on his sea wing, and like a doting mallard, 

 Leaving the fight in height, flies after it." 



Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. Sc. 10. 



To swim like a duck is proverbial — 



" Stephano. Here ; swear then how thou escapest. 

 Trinculo. Swam ashore, man, like a duck ; I can swim 

 like a duck, I '11 be sworn." — Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 2. 



An ancient device for getting within shot of wild-fowl 

 was " the stalking-horse." Hence the allusion — 



" Stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits.'' 



Much Ado about Nothing, Act ii. Sc. 3. 

 And again — 



" He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the 

 presentation of that he shoots his wit." — As You Like It, 

 Act v. Sc. 4. 



Gervase Markham tells us * that " sometime it so 

 happeneth that the fowl are so shie there is no getting 

 a shoot at them without ' a stalking-horse,' which must be 

 some old jade trained up for that purpose, who will 

 gently, and as you will have him, walk up and down in 

 the water which way you please, plodding and eating on 

 the grass that grows therein. You must shelter yourself 

 and gun behind his fore-shoulder, bending your body 

 down low by his side, and keeping his body still full 



* " The Gentleman's Recreation.' 1595- 



