The duck used in the ceremony has not always been wooden. In 1801, fellows hunted and killed a live mallard. The dead duck was tethered to a pole for the procession and its blood used to lace the red wine drunk by the revellers. The Lord Mallard of the day was said to have been attended by six men carrying white stakes and, at 4am, some 40 fellows were singing loudly from the roof of the Codrington Library. By 1901, Lang considered some of the practices of a century before to be rather "unseemly" and a stuffed duck was used for the ceremony.