160 NYROCA FERINA 



Food Value. The Pochard is generally considered one of the best European 

 ducks and has often been compared to our own Canvas-back. When shot on good 

 feeding ground it resembles our Canvas-back and Red-head. But in localities 

 where it feeds on animal matter and in salt bays or waters it becomes, like its Amer- 

 ican relatives, rank and unpalatable. By and large it is certainly the best of the 

 European diving ducks for the table, and even Leonhard Baldner of Strassburg, 

 writing in 1653, says that they eat few fishes, feed upon roots and are "counted as 

 good as Mallards for meat." 



Hunt. As before remarked the old-time decoymen did not like the Pochards in 

 their ponds because they disturbed other ducks and were very hard to take in the 

 pipes. Besides this they ate food placed for Mallard and Teal and by their presence 

 kept these ducks away from the entrance to the pipes. Consequently the decoymen 

 developed a system of standing nets and "flight-ponds" described in the fifteenth 

 and sixteenth chapters of Folkard (1859) and again referred to by MacPherson 

 (1897). This method of taking Pochards apparently originated in the county of 

 Essex, but was not invented until long after the decoys themselves. Sometimes the 

 flight-net was erected beside a well-known decoy but the two methods did not al- 

 ways work well together because the ordinary ducks work best in a well-sheltered 

 decoy whereas the flight-pond should be at least partly open, and not surrounded by 

 high trees. The more elaborate flight-ponds were arranged so that nets could be 

 erected at any side, according to the wind and the direction taken by the birds on 

 leaving the water. These nets were stretched on poles sixty feet in height and so ar- 

 ranged with a complicated system of pivots, weights and pulleys that they could be 

 lowered and sprung with speed and safety. The actual dimensions of the nets were 

 50 yards long by 18 yards in height and the mesh was three inches. The space on 

 which the nets were worked, was called the Dun-bird Yard and there were pens 

 under the net to catch and hold the fallen birds. The nets were not sprung until the 

 ducks had started from the pond and indeed the first of a flight were often allowed to 

 pass over the yard before the net was sprung. Folkard speaks of such great flights 

 striking the nets of Essex flight-ponds that these were borne down to the ground. 

 From five to six hundred of these duck at one "drop" was not considered unusual 

 and on one occasion a wagon and four horses were required to take away the spoil ! 



Ducks are said to be still taken in Holland with the standing net and a cruder form 

 of upright net is still used in various parts of the world, Scandinavia, Greece, Russia, 

 India, and even Japan. Sunken nets are also employed at times to take various 

 species of diving ducks. 



Pochards are hunted in the British Islands with the punt-gun, but apparently 

 very large bags were never easy to make. Payne-Gallwey gives some account of the 

 difficulty of approaching Pochards with a swivel-gun and the reasons why they seldom 



