COMMON DUCK. 39 



when the bird is off them. The attachment of tliis species to 

 its young is very great. When a person approaches them, 

 the parents go up to him, put themselves in his way, flutter 

 on the ground before him, and run to induce him to follow. 

 On visiting the pond at the north mill of Kintore last sum- 

 mer, I saw several broods, the parents all acting their parts 

 most admirably to draw me from the spot. The males, how- 

 ever, I have never seen thus employed. I once observed nine 

 very young Ducklings in a moss-pot, and was amused to see 

 how they kept together, always in the middle of the water. 

 Numbers of the young, or flappers, are taken, mostly by dogs, 

 in the end of July and in August, The males do not assume 

 the female plumage until well on in June, and have their 

 own bright dress again by the beginning of November. AVild 

 Ducks occasionally breed with the tame, the crosses showing 

 a disposition to take wing. The young may be brought up, 

 but are not to be trusted unless with tame ones, when they 

 will keep at home. The crossed birds thus produced are said 

 to have a fine flavour, and to be very readily fattened. The 

 first crosses are of a beautiful dove-colour, whatever be that 

 of the domestic parent." 



Mr. St. John, in his Wild Sports of the Highlands, has a 

 very pleasant chapter on AYild Ducks, in Avhich he says : — 

 " I have frequently caught and brought home young Wild 

 Ducks. If confined in a yard or elsewhere for a week or two 

 with tame birds, they strike up a companionship Avhich keeps 

 them from wandering when set at liberty. Some few years 

 back I brought home three young Wild Ducks : two of them 

 turned out to be Drakes. I sent away my tame Drakes, and 

 in consequence, the next season, had a large family of half- 

 bred and wholly Wild Ducks, as the tame and wild bred 

 together quite freely. The AYild Ducks which have been 

 caught are the tamest of all ; throwing ofi" all their natural 

 shyness, they follow their feeder, and will eat corn out of the 

 hand of any person with whom they are acquainted. The 

 half-bred birds are sometimes pinioned, as they are inclined 

 to fly away tor the purpose of making their nests at a dis- 

 tance : at other times, they never attempt to leave the field 

 in front of the house. These birds conceal their eggs with 



