THE GAME-DUCKS 307 



school of experience or otherwise, it is rare to find these 

 ducks about the oozes during the day-time after the ist 

 of November. 



This phase in the character of wigeon appears at first 

 sight to point to the conclusion that they are, by nature, 

 diurnal in their habits : and that they are only driven to 

 acquire night-feeding- proclivities by the influence of man, 

 and by considerations of safety. But on further exami- 

 nation, this conclusion appears hardly to be borne out. 

 In their northern breeding-grounds (whence they have 

 newly returned) there is practically, during their sojourn, 

 no night at all ; even in central Norway there is no 

 darkness, and in their main resorts in Lapland and 

 corresponding latitudes, midnight is indistinguishable 

 from noon. Consequently they then acquire promiscuous 

 habits ; and, like other Arctic voyagers, eat when 

 hungry and sleep when tired, without much regard to 

 solar chronology. On first arrival here, the wigeon, 

 and especially the young birds, which then for the first 

 time experience the regular alternations of light and 

 darkness, continue the anomalous habits acquired in 

 northern lands, where the summer sun never sets or at 

 least his light never dies out. In a few weeks, however, 

 they adapt themselves to the altered conditions, and 

 become absolutely nocturnal in their habits. 



No doubt this change in their daily life is influenced 

 by the disturbance and persecution they undergo in our 

 islands ; but that this persecution is not the sole factor 

 in producing it, is shown by the fact that their procedure 

 is exactly the same in countries where they are but little 

 or never disturbed at all. In various parts of the 

 Spanish Peninsula their habits proved precisely similar 

 to those noticed at home. Thus, on some of the large 



