THE MALLARD 221 



After the equinox's roar, and the cold gales blow from the 

 nor'-western hank, large flocks of migrants come over and 

 swell the ranks of the native mallard for a time ; but the home- 

 bred birds generally, in their turn, leave the district to the 

 emigrants. If the wind has blown fiercely for days, and it 

 suddenly drops in a night, you may see every expert gunner 

 out betimes the next morning, before the sun melts the crystals 

 on the dead thistle-crowns. But he must not be there too 

 early ; for if he fire into the birds' nightly feeding-places, they 

 will desert, and seek new grounds and new lines of flight ; 

 for they are peculiar, and won't be shot at at table, whereas 

 by day they don't seem to mind the sport. No ; you must 

 wait till they congregate in the early dawning on the misty 

 water ere they flight seaward — that is the time to fire at 

 them with the loud-echoing swivel-gun. 



And on a winter's day you may sometimes catch families 

 going seaward all day — herds that have come from inland 

 waters to the westward. 



But when the broads are laid and the land is white, the 

 ducks leave altogether, going south with their warning note 

 of coming cold and desolation. But even at such times a 

 few lazy birds remain, but they are scarce worth powder, 

 being merely bone and skin. In sooth, they are true augurs 

 of frost, increasing in numbers just before a great frost or 

 thaw. 



Often in winter, when the frosts have broken, you may in 

 the early morning see the silent gunner working up to fowl 

 on the still water; keeping the dark sky to westward, he 

 will paddle to within twenty yards of a bunch of mallard, 

 having passed silently through bunches of pochards and 

 coots, the gunner always keeping the dark sky behind 

 him ; for on a winter's dawn, before sunrise, the east is 

 clearer than the western sky as seven is to one. 



Let us watch yonder long cigar-shaped boat sculled noise- 

 lessly through those coots rocking on the water ; for there is 

 a good breeze, and it will be a difficult task for the gunner 



