ANAS BOSCHAS. 
190 
sedge. From within this the gunner, unseen 
unsuspected, watches his collecting prey, and, when ^ 
sufficient number offers, sweeps them down with gf®*'! 
effect. The mode of catching wild ducks, as practi»<^“ 
in India,* China,f the Island of Ceylon, and some pnt'f 
of South America, has been often described, and see£n'' 
if reliance may be placed on those accounts, o”- 
practicable in water of a certain depth. Tlie sportsni*”’ 
covering his head W'ith a hollow wooden vessel ** 
calabash, pierced with holes to see through, wades 
the water, keeping his head only above, and, tbjj’ 
disguised, moves in among the flock, which take w 
appearance to be a mere floating calabash, wln'^' 
suddenly pulling them under by the legs, he fastf*’ 
them to his girdle, and thus takes as many as he 
conveniently stow awiiy, without in the lea-st alarnii";^ 
the rest. They are also taken with snares made of hot'’, 
hair, or with hooks baited with small pieces of sheep', 
lights, which, floating on the surface, are swallowed W 
the ducks, and with them the hooks. They arc a*’, 
approached under cover of a stalking horse, or a fig" j 
formed of thin hoards, or other proper materials, 
painted so as to represent a horse or ox. But all tbe’j 
methods rc([uire much watching, toil, and fatigue, ^ 
their success is but trifling when compared with tH 
of the decoy now used both in France and Engbfiad 
which, from its superiority over every other mod<?>' 
well deserving the attention of persons of this couaff. 
residing in the neighbourhood of extensive mars^'^ 
frequented by wild ducks, as, by this method, malla 
and other kinds may he taken by thousands at a tia' ' 
The following circumstantial account of these deca.V 
and the manner of taking wild ducks in them '. 
England, is extracted from Bewick’s History 
Birds, vol. ii, p. 294 : 
* Naval Chronide, vol. ii, p. 473, 
f Du Hacde, History of China, vol. ii, p. Hi. 
t Ulloa’s Voyage, i, p. 53. p,, 
j Particularly in Picardy, in the foraisr ccuntrv, and 
shire in the latter. 
