194 
ANAS BOSCIIAS. 
“ III tliis nmiuier, five or six dozen have been taken 
at one drift. Wlien the wind blows directly in or out o* 
the pipe, the fowl seldom work well, especially when 
it blows in. If many pipes are made in a lake, the/ 
should be so constructed as to suit different winds. 
“ Duck and mallard are taken from Aujriist to June> 
teal or wigeon from October to March ; becks, suiee' 
golden eyes, arps, cricks, and pintails or sea pheasant’’ 
in March and April. 
“ Poker ducks are seldom taken, on account of the't 
diving and getting back in the pipe. 
“ It may be proper to observe here, that the duck’ 
feed during the night, and that all is ready prepar'^ 
for this sport in the evening. The better to entice tb^ 
ducks into the (lipe, hemp .seed is strewed occasionauJ 
on the water. The season allowed, by act of Parlianici'*' 
for catching these birds in this way, is from the latt**^ 
end of October till February. 
“ Particular spots, or decoys, in the fen countfi*' 
are let to the towders at a rent of from five to thity 
pounds per annum ; and Pennant instances a season 
which thirtj’-one thousand two hundred ducks, iucluil'"!j. 
teals aud wigeons, were sold in London only, from ten “ 
these decoys near Waiulleet, in Lincolnshire. Former')’ 
according to Willoughby, the ducks while in man!" 
and unable to fly, were driven by men in boats, furuisb'- 
with long poles, with which they splashed the wal^ 
between long nets, stretched vertically across the pu® 
in the shape of two sides of a triangle, into lesser n®’ 
placed at the point; and, in this way, he says, *®'*. 
thousand were taken at one driving in Deeping-f*''.’^ 
and Latham has ipioted an instance of two thousand 
hundred and forty-six being taken in two days, 
Spalding, in Lincolnshire; but this manner of catclu’k 
them, while in moult, is now prohibited.” 
