THE MALLARD. 613 
REFERENCES TO THE CUT. 
. Dog’s hole, where he goes to unbank the fowl. 
Reed fences on each side of the mouth of the pipe. 
. Where the decoy-man shows himself to the fowl first, and afterwards at the 
end of every shooting. 
Small reed fence to prevent the fowl seeing the dog when he goes to un- 
bank them. 
The shootings. : , 
Dog’s holes betwecn the shootings, used when working. 
Tunnel net at the end of the pipe. 
. Mouth of the pipe. 
PMA BP won 
“In this manner, five or six dozen have been taken at one drift. 
When the wind blows directly in-or out of the pipe, the fowl seldom 
work well, especially when it blows in. If many pipes are made ina 
lake, they should be so constructed as to suit different winds. 
«Duck and Mallard are taken from August to June; Teal or Wid- 
geon from October to March; Becks, Smee, Golden Eyes, Arps, 
Cricks, and Pintails or Sea Pheasants, in March and April. 
“Poker Ducks are seldom taken, on account of their diving and 
getting back in the pipe. 
«It may be proper to observe here, that the Ducks feed during the 
night, and that all is ready prepared for this sport in the evening. 
The better to entice the Ducks into the pipe, hemp seed is strowed 
occasionally on the water. The season allowed, by act of Parliament, 
for catching these birds in this way, is from the latter end of October 
till February. 
“Particular spots, or decoys, in the fen countries, are let to_the 
fowlers at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum; and Pen- 
nant instances a season in which thirty-one thousand two hundred 
Ducks, including Teals, and Widgeons, were sold:in London only, 
from ten of these decoys near Wainfleet, in Lincolnshire. Formerly, 
according to Willoughby, the Ducks while in moult, and unable to fly, 
were driven by men in boats, furnished with long poles, with which 
they splashed the water between long nets, stretched vertically across 
the pools, in the shape of two sides of a triangle, into lesser nets 
placed at the point; and, in this way, he says, four thousand were 
taken at one driving in Deeping-Fen; and Latham has quoted an 
instance of two thousand six hundred and forty-six being taken in two 
days, near Spalding, in Lincolnshire; but this manner of catching 
them, while in moult, is now prohibited.” 
52 
