610 THE MALLARD. 
scattered grains of the former harvest lying in abundance, the Ducks 
swim about, and feed at pleasure. 
The flesh of the Common Wild Duck is in general and high estima- 
tion; and the ingenuity of man, in every country where it frequents, 
has been employed in inventing stratagems to overreach these wary 
birds, and procure a delicacy for the table. To enumerate all these 
various contrivances would far exceed our limits; a few, however, of 
the most simple and effective may be mentioned. : 
In some ponds frequented by these birds, five or six wooden figures, 
cut and painted so as to represent Ducks, and sunk, by pieces of lead 
nailed on their bottoms, so as to float at the usual depth on the surface, 
are anchored in a favorable position for being raked from a conceal- 
ment of brush, &c., on shore. The appearance of these usually 
attracts passing flocks, which alight, and are shot down. Sometimes 
eight or ten of these painted wooden Ducks are fixed on a frame in 
various swimming postures, and secured to the bow of the gunner’s 
skiff, projecting before it in such a manner that the weight of the 
frame sinks the figures to their proper depth;' the skiff is then dressed 
with sedge or coarse grass in an artful manner, as low as the water’s 
edge; and ynder cover of this, which appears like a party of Ducks 
swimming by a small island, the gunner floats down sometimes to the 
very skirts of a whole congregated multitude, and pours ina destructive 
and repeated fire of shot among them. In winter, when detached 
pieces of ice are occasionally floating in the river, some of the gun- 
ners on the Delaware paint their whole skiff or canoe white, and, 
laying themselves flat at the bottom, with their hand over the side, 
silently managing a small paddle, direct it imperceptibly into or near a 
flock, before the Ducks have distinguished it from a floating mass of ice, 
and generally do great execution among them. A whole flock has 
sometimes been thus surprised asleep, with their heads under their 
wings. On land another stratagem is sometimes practised with great 
success. A large, tight hogshead is sunk in the flat marsh, or mud, 
near the place where Ducks are accustomed to feed at low water, and 
where otherwise there is no shelter; the edges and top are artfully 
concealed with tufts of long, coarse grass, and reeds or sedge, From 
within this the gunner, unseen and unsuspected, watches his collect- 
ing prey, and, when a sufficient number offers, sweeps them down with 
great effect. The mode of catching Wild Ducks, as practised in 
India,* China,+ the Island of Ceylon, and some parts of South Amer- 
ica,t has been often described, arid seems, if reliance may be placed 
on those accounts, only practicable in water‘of a certain depth. The 
sportsman, covering his head with a hollow wooden vessel, or calabash, 
pierced with holes to see through, wades into the water, keeping his 
head only above, and, thus disguised, moves in among the flock, 
which take the appearance to be a mere floating calabash, while, sud- 
denly pulling them under by the legs, he fastens them to his girdle, 
and thus takes as many as he can conveniently stow away, without in 
the least alarming the rest. They are also taken with snares made 
of horse hair, or with hooks baited with small pieces of sheep’s lights, 
* Naval Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 473. 
+ Du Hane, History of China, vol. ii. p. 142. 
} Uvxioa’s Voyage, i. p. 53. 
