SEA-DUCKS 377 



under certain circumstances, attempt that means of 

 evading pursuit, but such conduct appears improbable 

 and entirely foreign to what I have observed of their 

 natural disposition. What Folkard referred to — (and 

 " Wildfowler " copies his mistakes) — when he described 

 shoveler and sheld-duck as habitually resorting- to diving 

 as a means of escape from danger, is incomprehensible ; 

 but so, I must add, are many statements in both those 

 books. Thus Folkard spoke of chasing shovelers about 

 with a rowing boat (p. 260) ; presumably he referred 

 to scaup, but even so the idea is unthinkable. 



Although the sea-ducks invariably use wings in 

 preference to legs to keep clear of danger, yet, when 

 winged, so proficient are they at diving, that it is all but 

 hopeless to attempt to capture them. Half-a-dozen scaup, 

 scoter, or long-tails may fall to a shot, but, except the 

 dead, not one will ever be seen again save by a mere 

 chance ; for they dive straight as they fall, and nothing 

 more than the point of a bill will again appear above 

 water till danger is past. Winged eiders, as a rule, can 

 be followed up and occasionally secured if the sea is 

 smooth : they have hardly the same power of holding 

 themselves just under the surface, and, being so large, 

 are more easily seen when they reappear. They rely on 

 the immense distances they can traverse under water, 

 and generally with reason. But as for the others, give 

 it up, gather the dead and go on to try for others, for the 

 winged you will never get. 



More numerous than all the above-mentioned species 

 together, are the common scoters or black-ducks, which 

 come to the coast in swarms. The open sea is their home ; 

 they may be met with diving in twenty fathoms several 

 miles from land, or at other times close along-shore, (ccd- 



