128 
MALLARD. 
wave between the shooting ; all the fowl under the net can see 
him, but none that are in the lake can. The fowl that are in sight 
fly forward; and the man runs forward to the next shooting and 
waves his hat, and so on, driving them along till they come to the 
tunnel net, where they creep in : when they are all in, he gives 
the net a twist, so as to prevent their getting back : he then takes 
the net off from the end of the pipe with what fowl he may have 
caught, and takes them out one at a time, and disloeates their 
necks, and hangs the net on again; and all is ready for working 
again. 
“ In this manner five or six dozen have been taken at one 
drift. When the wind blows directly in or out of the pipe, the 
fowl seldom work well, especially when it blows in. If many 
pipes are made in a lake, they should be so constructed as to suit 
different winds. 
“ Duck and Mallard are taken from August to June. Teal 
or Widgeon, from October to March. Becks, Smee, Golden Eyes, 
Arps, Cricks, and Pintails or Sea Pheasants, in March and April. 
“ Poker Ducks are seldom taken, on account of their diving 
and getting back in the pipe. 
“ It may be proper to observe here, that the Ducks feed dur- 
ing the night, and that all is ready prepared for this sport in the 
evening. The better to entice the Ducks into the pipe, hemp seed 
is strewed occasionally on the water. The season allowed by act 
of parliament for catching these birds in this way, is from the lat- 
ter end of October till February. 
Particular spots or decoys, in the fen countries, are let to 
the fowlers at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum ; 
and Pennant instances a season in which thirty-one thousand two 
hundred Ducks, including Teals and Widgeons, were sold in Lon- 
don only, from ten of these decoys near Wainfleet, in Lincoln- 
shire. Formerly, according to Willughby, the Ducks, while in 
moult and unable to fly, were driven by men in boats, furnished 
