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THE STALKING-HORSE. 
“ Claps on his sea wing, and like a doting mallard, 
Leaving the fight in height, flies after it.” 
Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. Sc. io. 
To swim like a duck is proverbial— 
“ Stephano. Here ; swear then how thou escapest. 
Trincido. Swam ashore, man, like a duck ; I can swim 
like a duck, I ’ll be sworn.”— Tempest , Act ii. Sc. 2. 
An ancient device for getting within shot of wild-fowl 
was “ the stalking-horse.” Hence the allusion— 
“ Stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits.” 
Much Ado about Nothing , Act ii. Sc. 3. 
And again— 
“ He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the 
presentation of that he shoots his wit.”— As You Like It, 
Act v. Sc. 4. 
Gervase Markham tells us * that “ sometime it so 
happeneth that the fowl are so shie there is no getting 
a shoot at them without ‘ a stalking-horse,’ which must be 
some old jade trained up for that purpose, who will 
gently, and as you will have him, walk up and down in 
the water which way you please, plodding and eating on 
the grass that grows therein. You must shelter yourself 
and gun behind his fore-shoulder, bending your body 
down low by his side, and keeping his body still full 
# “ The Gentleman’s Recreation.’’ 
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