THE MALLARD. 
189 
?®Untry -ivhere it frequents, has been employed in 
’"'’enting stratagems to overreach these wary birds, and 
IjCocure a delicacy for the table. To enumerate all 
, *se various contrivances would far exceed our limits ; 
* feu-, however, of the most simple and effective may 
mentioned. 
Ill some ])onds fretpicnted by these birds, five or six 
''tioden figures, cut and painted so as to represent ducks, 
sunk, bv pieces of lead nailed on tbeir bottoms, so 
to lloat at the usual depth on the surface, are 
*’“:horcd ill a favourable position for being raked from 
^ toiiccalmeut of brush, &c. on shore. The appearance 
these usually attracts passing flocks, n hich alight, 
are shot down. Sometimes eight or ten of these 
™nted n ooden ducks are fixed on a frame in various 
*"'>tmning iiostures, and secured to the bow of the 
?*"ner’s 'skiff, projecting before it in such a manner 
'*t the nei'dit of the frame sinks the figures to their 
^’’oper deptlT ; the skiff is then dressed with sedge or 
'JH'se grass in an artful manner, as low as the water’s 
; and under cover of this, nhich ajipears like a 
j iy of ducks swimming by a small island, the gunner 
dou n sometimes to the very skirts of a whole 
miigregated multitude, and pours in a destructive and 
,1'eated fire of shot among them. In winter, when 
I'lached pieces of ice are occasionally floating in the 
some of the gunners on the Delaware paint their 
'aole skiff or canoe tvhite, and, laying themselves flat 
* ttte bottom, with their hand over the side, silently 
.“"aging a sm.ill paddle, direct it imperceptibly into or 
a flock, before the dui^ks have distinguished it from 
mating mass of ice, and generally do great e.xecution 
them. A whole flock has sometiiues been thus 
Q'T'fised asleep, with their heads under their wings. 
'' 'and, another stratagem is sometimes practised with 
a ^at success. A large tight hogshead is .sunk in the 
“t lUarsh, or mud, near the place where ducks are 
,,'^*='istoraed to feed at low water, and where otherwise 
is no shelter ; the edges and tops are artfully 
"Sealed with tufts of long coarse grass and reeds or 
