612 THE MALLARD. 
From the end of the last shooting, a person cannot see the lake, 
owing to the bend of the pipe: there is then no further occasion for 
shelter. Were it not for those shootings, the fowl that remain about 
the mouth of the pipe would be alarmed, if the person driving the fowl 
already under the net should be exposed, and would become so shy as 
to forsake the place entirely. The first thing the decoy-man does when 
he approaches the pipe, is to take a piece of lighted turf or peat, and 
hold it near his mouth, to prevent the fowl smelling him. He is at- 
tended by a dog taught for the purpose of assisting him; he walks 
very silently about half-way up the shootings, where a small piece of 
wood is thrust through the reed fence, which makes an aperture just 
sufficient to see if any fowl are in; if not, he walks forward to see if 
any are about the mouth of the pipe. If there are, he stops and makes 
a motion to his dog, and gives him a piece of cheese or something to 
eat; upon receiving it he goes directly to a hole through the reed 
fence, (No. 1,) and the fow] immediately fly off the bank into the 
water; the dog returns along the bank, between the reed fences and 
the pipe, and comes out to his master at the hole, (No. 2.) The man 
now gives him another reward, and he repeats his round again, till the 
fowl are attracted by the motions of the dog, and follow him into the 
mouth of the pipe. This operation is called working them. The man 
now retreats farther back, working the dog at different holes till the 
fowl are sufficiently under the net; he now commands his dog to lie 
down still behind the fence, and goes forward to the end of the pipe 
next the lake, where he takes off his hat and gives it a wave between 
the shooting ; all the fowl under the net can see him, but none that are 
in the lake can. The fowl that are in sight fly forward; and the man 
runs forward to the next shooting, and waves his hat, and so on, driv- 
ing them along’ till they come to the tunnel net, where they creep in: 
when they are all in, he gives the net a twist, so as to prevent their 
getting back: he then takes the net off from the end of the pipe, with 
what fowl he may have caught, and takes them out, one at a time, and 
dislocates their necks, and hangs the net on again; and all is ready 
for working again. 
