﻿MALLARD, OR WILD DUCK. 89 



every morning and eveningof the present season to be witnessed, 

 we speak of January, 1849. We never have seen so many 

 water-fowl about us as there are at the present time, during all 

 the years we have studied the subject of Ornithology. 



Many are the methods in which the Mallard is taken for 

 the table, its flesh being relished by all nations ; we shall enu- 

 merate a few ways that are practised, for the amusement of 

 persons who may not have an opportunity of witnessing 

 them. 



The greatest number of ducks of all descriptions are 

 taken in decoys, or low grounds in the vicinity of lakes and 

 inlets of the sea, where the grassy ground is, during the 

 greater part of the year, covered by water ; a sandy flat en- 

 closed by an embankment or paling, has a large pond in its 

 centre of a hundred or a hundred and fifty yards wide, and 

 four or five ditches or canals are connected with it ; the ends 

 of these are all directed to one and the same spot in the 

 form of a horn or half-moon, and each of them is enclosed 

 by osiers, rushes, alder, and ash trees, so as to form an 

 avenue that becomes narrower as it approaches its termina- 

 tion ; among these bushes the sportsman's hut is concealed, 

 as also the warehouse of the poor captives ; in three or four 

 distances along these avenues are screens made of rushes that 

 come close up to the water for the use of the bird-catcher. 

 The narrower parts of the avenues are covered over with 

 net-work that end in a funnel of the same material. On 

 the pond several call-birds, or trained Wild Ducks, of 

 divers species, are allowed to swim about, to which the 

 flocks that come about are induced to settle, and when 

 the strangers are fairly swimming on the pond, the de- 

 coy er calls his trained ducks by a whistle, either imitating 

 a duck or golden Plover, and throws some food over one 

 of the screens of rushes, that is nearest the pond, then 



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