THE EIDER-DUCK. 
197 
ounces; of which the linen covering weighs two 
pounds and a half, — leaving two pounds eleven 
ounces for the Eider down. 
Shy and difficult of approach as Wild-Ducks are, 
and withal so valuable when obtained, we ought not 
to be surprised that a good deal of human ingenuity 
has been exerted in inventing the most efficacious 
modes of catching them ; and, it is curious to 
perceive how people in very different parts of the 
world may hit upon the same expedient. Thus, 
the Indians, who live in villages built on the 
shallows, in the midst of the waters of the great 
lake of Maracaibo, on the north coast of South 
America, opening into the Caribbean Sea, practise 
the same mode as the Chinese. They take care 
that a number of empty calabashes, a sort of 
large shell, or rind of a fruit, resembling an empty 
gourd, are continually floating up and down the 
lake ; to these the Ducks get accustomed, and allow 
them to drift down amongst their flocks with- 
out expressing any fear. The Duck-catcher, par- 
ticularly when from the state of the wind or situation 
of the birds, he observes the calabashes floating near 
a flock, goes into the lake, with a calabash over his 
head, having holes in it for seeing and breathing. 
Nothing is seen above the water except the calabash, 
the Indian taking care to keep the whole of his 
body immersed. He now steals slowly and quietly 
towards the unsuspecting birds, and when within 
arm’s length, catches one of them by the leg, and 
twitches it suddenly under water, before it has time 
to alarm the rest, by crying or fluttering its wings. 
He then moves towards another, which he treats in 
