ffer its approach, and allow it to move at
will among their flock. The man, accordingly, walks about in the
midst of his game, and, whenever he pleases, pulls them by the
legs under the water, and fixes them to his belt, until he has
secured as many as he requires, and then moves off as he went
amongst them, without exciting the slightest suspicion of the
trick he has been playing them. This singular mode of
duck-hunting is also practised on the Ganges, the earthen
vessels of the Hindoos being used instead of calabashes. These
vessels, being those in which the inhabitants boil their rice,
are considered, after once being used, as defiled, and are
accordingly thrown into the river. The duck-takers, finding them
suitable for their purpose, put them on their heads; and as the
ducks, from seeing them constantly floating down the stream, are
familiar with their appearance, they regard them as objects from
which no danger is to be expected.

[Illustration: CALL-DUCKS.]

DUCK-SNARES IN THE LINCOLNSHIRE FENS.--The following interesting
account of how duck-snaring used to be managed in the
Lincolnshire fens, was published some years ago, in a work
entitled the "Feathered Tribes."--"In the lakes to which they
resorted, their favourite haunts were observed, and in the most
sequestered part of a haunt, a pipe or ditch was cut across the
entrance, decreasing gradually in width from the entrance to the
further end, which was not more than two feet wide. The ditch
was of a circular form, but did not bend much for the first ten
yards. The banks of the lake on each side of the ditch were kept
clear of weeds and close herbage, in order that the ducks might
get on them to sit and dress themselves. Along the ditch, poles
were driven into the ground close to the edge on each side, and
the tops were bent over across the ditch and tied together. The
poles then bent forward at the entrance to the ditch, and formed
an arch, the top of which was tea feet distant from the surface
of the water; the arch was made to decrease in height as the
ditch decreased in width, so that the remote end was not more
than eighteen inches in height. The poles were placed about six
feet from each other, and connected by poles laid lengthwise
across the arch, and tied together. Over the whole was thrown a
net, which w