MALLARD.
minute's had passed when a duck rime in si^hl In-fore I had lime to lire a shut, and alighting on the ice glided
right up to within a yard of where I had taken up my position. Jumping up suddenly, the bird was confused
and, fluttering oil', ollVrcd an easy shot, being conspicuous in the gloom from the light reflected by the snow
At some of the Highland lochs in the must Unfrequented parts of the country there are many of these birds.
On the Mb of July, WIS, while having our lunch cm the batiks of Loch Doula in Sutherland, my old black
retriever " Sell " amused herself by exploring the dense reed-beds and slades near at baud, and captured and
brought out sixteen full-sized birds, all in good condition. On the 2(lth March, ISIJU, a gale blowing from the east
and the water rough and unlit ted for shooting, we went out in the large punt on Loch Slyn, near Tain in the east
of Koss-sbiiv, and as we were returning after finding no birds, I happened to c itch si^'bt of the head of a Mallard
in the heather on the bank of the loch. Though the punt was rolling in the swell, the gnn was immediately
turned on the bird, as 1 was anxious to i^t clear of the charge, which I imagined might possibly he damp
from the spray that had broken over the boat *. As the trigger was pulled, the Mallard at which I aiuied rose
on wing, ami at least a hundred others sprung up from the cover close at hand just beyond the bank. Luekily
the one I fust observed was in about the centre of the flock, and the charge passed through the thickest part
of the dense mass. Many fell in the heather, rushes, and long grass, where they could not he followed ; but we
managed to secure about iive-aud-twenty, and as many more escaped in the thick cover, as my retriever had
la-en left at a farm by the loch-side, ns 1 had not expected she would be required. Before the punt had been
stoned away a number of Grey Crows wen' observed, flying, screaming, anil quarrelling near the spot where the
shot had been fired. On returning it was ascertained that these destructive marauders hail discovered ami
dragged out at least a dozen of the wounded birds that had managed to evade capture.
I seldom observed large llocks of Mallard on the Norfolk Broads in the east of the county, forty or fifty
being sometimes seen, and on only one or two occasions ns many as a hundred having been noticed in company.
My ohserval ions in this part of the country only commenced in 1 s't), and probably the numbers of fowl had
diminished as gunners had increased. In the autumn of 1>7;S a Mallard, knocked down while Hying over the
deep water on Breydon, dived among the green weeds and did not reappear on the surface; after waiting some
time, ami no signs of the bird being observed, the men commenced to stir up the weeds with their oars near
where the bird had dived. After about half an hour's work he was discovered entangled in the strands of the
weeds, which were exceedingly thick on that part of the water.
While at Innerwick, in Glcnlyon in the west of Perthshire, we ascertained that numbers of "Wild Ducks
visited the marshes near the river during the night ; there being little chance of obtaining a shot, traps were
set in the pools of water the birds frequented. On reaching the spot the lirst morning it was evident that two
birds had been taken, though only their beaks remained in tho traps, the birds having been dragged away by
some one who had observed them fluttering while attempting to escape. The farmer on whuse ground this
occurred was greatly put out, and wished me to request the minister to take tho matter up nnd examine all
those in the parish who were likely to be the delinquents, and make them conf<«is their iniquity. I did not,
however, take any steps to discover the culprits, but the traps which were set proved very successful, and they
were never interfered with again.
I kept several pairs of Mallard in the enclosure with a pond in our garden at Brighton ; no young were
ever reared, and all in course of time died off after living in confinement for five or six years. I often watched
one or two of the drakes in the summer running rapidly after the blue-bottle Hies hovering round the [mud unil
catching them with the greatest agility ; they would also hunt out the black-beetles from the grass in moist
parts of their ground, and gulp them down with evident relish, as though they were dainty morsels.
COMMON TEAL.
ANAS CRECCA.
Tin; first of the Wildfowl family I ever shot was a handsome old drake Teal, killed when a school-hoy
from Harrow, home for the holidays, on a cold wintry morning at daybreak, just over thirty years ago.
The bird was swimming in a small pool of water in a dyke that was partly frozen over in the marshes
near the coast at ISulvcrhithe, between St. Leonard's-on-Sea and ISexhill in Sussex. This beautiful little
fowl was considered a great prize, and the bag being presently augmented by some King-Dotterel and
about half a score of Dunlins knocked out of a thick sweeping round one of the "pella"*, I returned
in the evening considerably- elated nnd determined to spend the rest of my vacation in pursuit of Wildfowl.
After a time my expeditious were extended to Pcvcnsey Level and inland marshes that stretch
some miles up the enuntry ; these proved very attractive feedlttgtgfnunda for Mallard in those days,
and great success was met with when I got more used to tho work. A change, however, has come over
tins district, and now there is not one fowl to be seen where there were formerly hundreds of Ducks
and Geese.
The Common Teal seems to be almost universally distributed over all suitable parts of England and
Scotland that I have visited, breeding most abundantly in the heather on the slopes surrounding many
of tho remote Highland lochs in the wilds oí Itoss-shire and Sutherland. Large numbers also arrive on
our shores in severe winters from the north of Europe and remain till driven further south by the longcent
iniicd inclemency of the weather.
While studying agriculture in East Lothian in the autumn of 1868 1 had a uarrow escape of a
ducking, if nothing woise, through following a Hock of this species. On my way from Perry-gate near
North Berwick to Gullane, to dine with a farmer and afterwards await the flight of the Wild Ducks in
the pits dug out at the pools on the finks, I noticed half a dozen Teal drop on some small puddles of
rain-water on the highest ridge of Ehris. This tiny rocky islet can he reached at low water from the
mainland; and thinking there was time for a shot, I started off and succeeded in bagging a couple with
each barrel. On reaching the fuot of the rocks again, I discovered the tide commencing to How over
the low stony ground that had to be crossed before making the shore; aud the water was up to my
knees, hut not over the long boots, before I arrived at the sandy links. On this very spot a man in
charge of a cart and team of horses, who had been loading with stones on the shore, was caught by the
tide a few years before, hut bow it happened none can tell. The carter was (Wept away by the force
of the waves, and both horses were, I believe, drowned; possibly the cart had been overloaded, and the
unfortunate animals were unable to drag it over the stony shore to the land.
While shooting on Breydon mudflats near Yarmouth, in the east of Norfolk, on the morning of the