DUCK. 4gl 



eggs in a high tree, in a deferted Magpie or Crow's neft *. And 

 we have likewife been informed of an inftance of one being 

 found, at Etchingham in Sujfex, fitting upon nine eggs, in an oak, 

 twenty-five feet from the ground : the eggs were fupported by 

 fome fmall twigs laid crofsways f. 



In France this fpecies is not often feen, except in winter ■, ap- 

 pearing in Oclober and going north in fpring : are caught in va- 

 rious manners; among" the reft, in decoys, as in England; the chief 

 place for which is Picardy \, where prodigious numbers are 

 taken, particularly on the river Somme. It is alfo cuftomary 

 there to wait for the flock's palling over certain known places, 

 and the fportfman, having a wicker cage, containing a quantity of 

 tame birds, lets out one at a time, at a convenient feafon, which 

 enticing the paffengers within gunfhot, five or fix are often killed 

 at once by an expert markfman. They are now and then taken 

 alfo by a hook baited with a bit ofjheep's lights, which fwimming 

 on the water, the bird fwallows the bait, and with it the hook. 

 Divers other means of catching Ducks and Geefe are peculiar to 

 certain nations ; of which one feems worth mentioning, from its 

 Angularity : — The perfon wifhing to take thefe, wades into the 

 water up to the chin, and, having his head covered with an empty 

 calabajh, approaches the place where the Ducks are ; when they, 

 not regarding an objecl of this fort, fuffer the man freely to mix 

 with the flock ; after which he has only to pull them by the leg 

 under the water, one after another, till he is fatisfied ; returning as 

 unfufpecled by the remainder as when he firftcame among them. 



• Salerne Orn. p. 428. f Mr. tunftall. 



X In one decoy, nets are ufed to the amount of three thou/and li-vres. — Hift. des 

 Oif. ix. p. 128. 



3 R 2 This 



