298 
THE MALLARD. 
great success. A large tight hogshead is sunk in the flat marsh, 
or mud, near the place where Ducks are accustomed to feed at 
low water, and where otherwise there is no shelter; the edges 
and top are artfully concealed with tufts of long coarse grass and 
reeds, or sedge. From within this the gunner, unseen and un- 
suspected, watches his collecting prey, and when a sufiicient 
number offers, sweeps them down with great effect. The mode 
of catching Wild Ducks, as practised in India,* China,t the is- 
land of Ceylon, and some parts of South America, f has been 
often described, and seems, if reliance may be placed on those 
accounts, only practicable in water of a certain depth. The 
sportsman covering his head with a hollow wooden vessel or 
calabash, pierced with holes to see through, wades into the wa- 
ter, keeping his head only above, and thus disguised, moves in 
among the flock, which take the appearance to be a mere float- 
ing calabash, while suddenly pulling them under by the legs, 
he fastens them to his girdle, and thus takes as many as he can 
conveniently stow away, without in the least alarming the rest. 
They are also taken with snares made of horse hair, or with 
hooks baited with small pieces of sheep’s lights, which floating 
on the surface, are swallowed by the ducks, and with them the 
hooks. They are also approached under cover of a stalking horse, 
or a figure formed of thin boards or other proper materials, and 
painted so as to represent a horse or ox. But all these methods 
require much watching, toil, and fatigue, and their success is but 
trifling when compared with that of the Decoy now used both in 
France and England,|| which, from its superiority over every oth- 
er mode, is well deserving the attention of persons of this country 
residing in the neighbourhood of extensive marshes frequented 
by Wild Ducks; as, by this method, Mallard and other kinds 
may be taken by thousands at a time. The following circum- 
stantial account of these decoys, and the manner of taking Wild 
* Naval Chron. vol. ii, p. 473. t Du Halde, Hist, China, vol. ii, p. 142. 
I Ulloa’s Voy. i, p. 53. || Particularly in Picardy, in the former 
country, and Lincolnshire in the latter. 
