114 



THE MALLARD 



The flesh of the common Wild Duck is in general and high 

 estimation ; and the ingenuity of man, in every country where it 

 frequents, has been employed in inventing stratagems to overreach 

 these wary birds, and procure a delicacy for the table. To enu- 

 merate all these various contrivances would far exceed our limits ; 

 a few, however, of the most simple and effective may be men- 

 tioned. 



In some ponds frequented by these birds, five or six wooden 

 figures, cut and painted so as to represent ducks, and sunk, by 

 pieces of lead nailed on their bottoms, so as to float at the usual 

 depth on the surface, are anchored in a favorable position for be- 

 ing raked from a concealment of brush, &c. on shore. The ap- 

 pearance of these usually attracts passing flocks, which alight, and 

 are shot down. Sometimes eight or ten of these painted wooden 

 ducks are fixed on a frame in various swimming postures, and se- 

 cured to the bow of the gunner's skiff, projecting before it in such 

 a manner that the weight of the frame sinks the figures to their 

 proper depth ; the skiff is then drest with sedge or coarse grass 

 in an artful manner, as low as the water's edge; and under cover 

 of this, which appears like a party of ducks swimming by a small 

 island, the gunner floats down sometimes to the very skirts of a 

 whole congregated multitude, and pours in a destructive and re- 

 peated fire of shot among them. In winter, when detached pieces 

 of ice are occasionally floating in the river, some of the gunners 

 on the Delaware paint their whole skiff or canoe white, and laying 

 themselves flat at the bottom, with their hand over the side silently 

 managing a small paddle, direct it imperceptibly into or near a 

 flock, before the ducks have distinguished it from a floating mass 

 of ice, and generally do great execution among them. . A whole 

 flock has sometimes been thus surprised asleep, with their heads 

 under their wings. On land, another stratagem is sometimes prac- 

 tised with great success. A large tight hogshead is sunk in the 

 flat marsh, or mud, near the place where ducks are accustomed to 



