MALLARD. 
125 
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 other mode, is well deserving the atten- 
tion of persons of this country residing in the neighborhood of ex- 
tensive marshes frequented by Wild Ducks ; as, by this method. 
Mallard and other kinds may be taken by thousands at a time. 
The following circumstantial account of these decoys, and the 
manner of taking Wild Ducks in them in England, is extracted 
from Bewick’s History of British Birds, vol. 11, p, 294. 
“ In the lakes where they resort,” says the correspondent of 
that ingenious author, “ the most favorite 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 en- 
trance 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 de- 
creases in width, till the farther end is not more than eighteen 
^ Particularly in Picardy, in the former country, and Lincolnshire in the latter. 
VOL. VIII. 2 i 
B. M 
West f ^ Pa., 
on • nifCondW 
