330 
BRITISH BIRDS* 
however, to omit noticing the decoy, which from 
its fuperiority over every other method, proniifes 
to continue long in ufe ; for in that mode the Mal- 
lard and other Ducks are taken by thoufands at a 
time ; whereas all the other fchemes of lying in 
ambufli, fliooting, baited hooks, wading in the wa- 
ter with the head covered in a perforated wooden 
veffel, or in a calabafh, &c. ^ are attended with 
much watching, toil, and fatigue, and are alfo 
comparatively trifling in point of fuccefs. 
The decoys now in ufe are formed by cutting 
pipes or tapering ditches, widened and deepened as 
they approach the water, in various femicircular 
diredliions, through the fwampy ground, into par- 
ticular large pools, which are Iheltered by furround- 
ing trees or buflies, and fituated commonly in 
the midfl: of the folitary marfli. At the narrow 
points of thefe ditches, fartheft from the pool, by 
which they are filled with water, the fowlers place 
their fujinel nets ; from thefe the ditch is covered 
* Tills method of taking Wild Geefe or Ducks is reprefcnt- 
cd, as well as thofe anciently in ufe, of taking aim oft every kind 
of wild animals, in an old folio book, confifting of 105 engrav- 
ings, by Collaert and others, from the paintings of Johannes 
Stradanus. The wooden veflel which conceals the head of the 
fowler, is there reprefented, as it were floating about among the 
unfufpe<fting flocks, while with his hand the dextrous fportf- 
man is pulling all thofe within his reach, one after another, by 
the legs under water. This method is ftill pradifed in China. 
