THE MALLARD. 
299 
Ducks in them in England, is extracted from Bewick’s History 
of British Birds, vol. ii, p. 294. 
“In the lakes where they resort,” says the correspondent of 
that ingenious author, “ the most favourite 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 entrance 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 decreases in width, till the far- 
ther end is not more than eighteen inches in height. The poles 
are placed about six feet from each other, and connected togeth- 
er by poles laid lengthwise 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. Supposing 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 manner, 
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 
