116 



THE MALLARD. 



In the lakes where they resort/' says the correspondent of 

 that ingenious author, " the most favorite haunts of the fowl are 

 observed : then in the most sequestered part of this haunt, they cut 

 a ditch about four yards across at the entrance, and about fifty or 

 sixty yards in length, decreasing gradually in width from the en- 

 trance to the farther end, which is not more than two feet wide. 

 It is of a circular form, but not bending much for the first ten 

 yards. The banks of the lake, for about ten yards on each side 

 of this ditch (or pipe, as it is called) are kept clear from reeds, 

 coarse herbage, &c. in order that the fowl may get on them to sit 

 and dress themselves. Across this ditch, poles on each side, close 

 to the edge of the ditch, are driven into the ground, and the tops 

 bent to each other and tied fast. These poles at the entrance 

 form an arch, from the top of which to the water is about ten 

 feet. This arch is made to decrease in height, as the ditch de- 

 creases in width, till the farther end is not more than eighteen 

 inches in height. The poles are placed about six feet from each 

 other, and connected together by poles laid lengthways across the 

 arch and tied together. Over them a net with meshes sufficiently 

 small to prevent the fowl getting through, is thrown across, and 

 made fast to a reed fence at the entrance, and nine or ten yards 

 up the ditch, and afterwards strongly pegged to the ground. At 

 the farther end of the pipe, a tunnel net, as it is called, is fixed, 

 about four yards in length, of a round form, and kept open by 

 a number of hoops about eighteen inches in diameter, placed 

 at a small distance from each other, to keep it distended. Sup- 

 posing the circular bend of the pipe to be to the right, when 

 you stand with your back to the lake, on the left hand side a 

 number of reed fences are constructed, called shootings^ for the 

 purpose of screening from sight the decoy-man^ and in such a man- 

 ner, that the fowl in the decoy may not be alarmed, while he is 

 driving those in the pipe : these shootings are about four yards in 

 length, and about six feet high, and are ten in number. They are 



