-) THE MALLARD. 611 
which, floating on the surface, are swallowed by the -Ducks, and with 
them the hooks. They are also approached under cover of a stalking 
horse, or a figure formed of thin boards, or other proper materials, and 
painted so as to represent a horse or ox. But all these methods 
require much watching, toil, and fatigue, and their success is bat 
trifling when compared with that of the decoy now used both in France 
and England,* which, from its superiority over every other mode, is 
well deserving the attention of persons of this country residing in the 
neighborhood of extensive marshes frequented by Wild Ducks, as, by 
this method, Mallard and other kinds may be taken by thousands at a 
time. The following circumstantial account of these decoys, and the 
manner of taking Wild Ducks in them in England, is extracted from 
Bewick’s History of British Birds, vol. ii. p. 294: — 
“In the lakes where they resort,” says the correspondent of that 
ingenious author, “the most favorite haunts of the fowl are observed: 
then, in the most sequestered part of this haunt, they cut a ditch 
about four yards across at the entrance, and about fifty or sixty yards 
in length, decreasing gradualiy in width from the entrance to the far- 
ther end, which is not more than two feet wide. It is of a circular 
form, but not bending much for the first ten yards. The banks of the 
lake, for about ten yards on each side of this ditch, (or pipe, as it 
is called,) are kept clear from reeds, coarse herbage, &c., in order 
that the fowl may get on them to sit and dress themselves. Across 
this ditch, poles on each side, close to the edge of the ditch, are 
driven into the ground, and the tops bent to each other and tied fast. 
These poles at the entrance form an arch, from the top of whichito the 
water is about ten feet. ‘This arch is made to decrease in height, as 
the ditch decreases in width, till the farther end is not more than 
eighteen inches in.height. The poles are placed about six feet from 
each other, and connected together by poles laid lengthwise across 
the arch, and tied together. Over them ® net, with meshes sufficiently 
small to prevent the fowl getting through, is thrown across, and made 
fast to a reed fence at the entrance, and nine or ten yards’ up the 
ditch, and afterwards strongly pegged to the ground. At the farther 
end of the pipe, a tunnel net, as it is called, is fixed, about four yards 
in length, of a round form, and kept open by a number of hoops about 
eighteen inches in diameter, placed at a small distance from each 
ofr, to keep it distended. Supposing the circular bend of the pipe 
to be to the right, when you stand with your back to the lake, on the 
left hand side a number of reed fences are constructed, called shoot- 
ings, for the purpose of screening from sight the decoy-man, and in 
such a manner, that the fowl in the decoy may not be alarmed while 
he is driving those in the pipe: these shootings are about four yards 
in length, and about six feet high, and are ten in number. They are 
placed in the following manner :— 
* Particularly in Picardy, mm the former country, and Lincolnshire in the latter. 
