DUCK CATCHING IN JAPAN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 390, 26 August 1911, Page 7

DUCK CATCHING IN JAPAN.

One of the peasant industries of Ja-sn is the catching of wild ducks, which is done in a very simple manner, as related by an English traveller who has lately returned from the La-.d of the Chrysanthemum. He says : —"I was waited upon at a teahouse one morning, after a night's hMit for ducks, by several professional duck-hunters, with the request iliat I v,-ould not go out again, and 'hey would give me as many d.icks as I wanted to take away. I con-s-.nt:d, with the proviso that I ho ;ld see the fun, and went with them to the village. The chief hunter had a comfortable house and young family, all looking well-to-do. His wife was preparing birdlime in largo crock, over a charcojl tire, and the others ware all cutting reeds into lengths of about eighteen inches, and these were tied up in bundles or a hundred. When the birdlime had ! o led down to his satisfaction, the bun-lies of reeds were dipped in the hot lluid,- and held over it until there was no drainage, and then stood on •.nl. Towards dusk we sallied forth, with the bundles slung to bamboos, an;l, on arrival at the swamp, the limed reeds were stuck lightly in the mud, with the lime just above the water. This took until dark, whan we made our way back to the teahouse. Next morning, at da'ybreak, we returned to the swamp, and found sixty-five bundles of reeds, each containing an exhausted duck, and almost every reed had been displaced." He tells also of a similar novel manner of catching rats, which our English vermin-hunters might try. He was much disturbed during the night by hordes of rats, which had been driven indoors by the cold, and therefore consulted a native hunter, who promised relief. The ratcatcher brought a number of sheets of paper, smeared with birdlime, and distributed them about the room after nightfall. In the morning there were nc less than seventeen bundles of paper on the floor, each containing a living rat, their squeaks and contortions being, as may be imagined, very absurd.