49°
F emale. The female is very plain: the'ground colour of the plumage
pale reddifh brown, fpotted with black: the Jpeculum on the
wings the fame : but none of the tail feathers curved, as in
the male.
Plac« and' g § || Bucks frequent the marihy places in many parts of this
Manners. kingdom, but no where more plenty than in Lincolnjhire, where
prodigious numbers are annually taken in our decoys*; each
decoy paying from five pounds to twenty annual rent-}*. They
pair in the fpring, and lay from ten to fixteen eggs; hut, in re-
fpe£t to England, only a fmall portion may be fuppofed to breed
here, as the prodigious quantities feen in winter, compared with
thofe which are met with in fummer, make us fuppofe that the
major part feek a more northern fituation at that feafon-. With
us they pair in fpring, and breed in all the low marihy grounds ;
laying from ten to fixteen eggs; and the young take the water as
foon as hatched. Is a very artful bird, and does not always
make the neft clofe to the water; not unfrequently at a good
diftance from i t ; in which cafe the Buck will take the young in
ks beak or between the "legs. Are known fometimes to lay the:
# In only ten decoys, in the neighbourhood of WainjUet, thirty-one thoufand
two hundred have been taken in®ne feafon.— Br. Zool.
-f In Somerfetjhire one has been known to pay as far as thirty pounds. /</.— •
The nature of thefe decoys, and management of them, may be feen at large in
Will. Orn. p. 372,. 373- See Br. Zool, art. Mallard.— In the Bibliotb. Topog.
Gale an. N? ii. part 1. p. 3 59, I find an extra# from the Antiq. Society of Spalding,
concerning the taking of Ducks, which is as follows: <x At the ducting on Tbur/
day laft, were taken up one hundred feventy-four dozen of Mallards or Drakes
moulting; and on Monday■ forty-fix dozen and a half .. in all two thoufand fix.
hundred and forty-fix birds..” '
eggat
eggs in a high tree, in a deferred Magpie or Crow's neft *. And
we have likewife been informed of an inftance of one being
found, at Etchingham in Sttjfex, fitting upon nine eggs, in an oak,
twenty-five feet from the ground : the eggs were fupported by
fome fmall twigs laid crofsways f .
In France this fpecies is not often feen, except in winter; appearing
in Olieber and going north in fpring; are caught in various
manners; among the reft, in decoys, as in England; the chief
place for which is Picardy %, where prodigious numbers are
taken, particularly on the river Somme. It is alfo cuftomary
there to wait for the flock’s pafling over certain known places,
and the fportfman, having a wicker cage, containing a quantity of
tame birds, lets out one at a time, at a convenient feafon, which
enticing the paflengers within gunfhot, five or fix are often killed
at once by an expert markfman. They are now and then taken
alfo by a hook baited with a bit of jheef s lights, which fwimming
on the water, the bird fwallows the bait, and with it the hook,
Div e r s other means of catching Bucks and Geefe are peculiar to
certain nations ; of which one feems worth mentioning, from its
Angularity:— The perfon wifhing to take thefe, wades into the
water up to the chin, and, having his head covered with an empty
calabajh, approaches the place where the Bucks are ; when they,
not regarding an ohjeft of this fort, fuffer the man freely to mix
with the flock; after which he has only to pull them by the leg
under the water, one after another, till he is fatisfied ; returning as
unfufpefted by the remainder as when he firft came among them.
# Salerne Orn. p. 42^. *1 Mr. 7‘unflall,
" t In one decoy, nets are ufed to the amount of thru thoufand Uwes.—Hiß. Jet
O ifix . p. 128.
^3 R 2 Thi*
t