THE GAME-DUCKS 317 



shot, though I have occasionally done so, even in mild 

 weather. 



Like the rest of the surface-ducks, the "skells," when 

 feeding- afloat, frequently turn up vertically in order to 

 reach the bottom, or the submerged grasses beneath 

 them. 



Sheld-ducks differ from all the other surface-ducks in 

 that the sexes are alike ; they have, moreover, no "eclipse," 

 and no heavy moult. For to them the loss of the power 

 of flight on the open shores devoid of shelter or covert 

 which form their home, would be fatal. Hence Nature 

 has provided that their quills be cast, not all together, 

 but in separate corresponding pairs. In summer, when 

 they bring their young down to the water (the drakes 

 at that period keeping separate in little bunches), it is 

 almost impossible to make the female sheld-duck fly ; and 

 she, with her brood, develops a facility for diving that 

 is remarkable in a species not "built that way." This 

 circumstance might be construed into a belief that 

 sheld-ducks are then unable to fly owing to the moult. 

 But that, according to my experience, is not so. The 

 reluctance arises solely from maternal solicitude, as is 

 demonstrated should one catch a female with her brood 

 away from the water : she will then take wing, leaving 

 the young to seek safety by squatting among the stones 

 and tide-wrack on the shore. 



I must not overlook the fact recorded by C. M. 

 Adamson, that sheld-ducks kept by him in confinement 

 did moult their quills simultaneously, and so lost the 

 power of flight. That, however, may be attributable to 

 the altered conditions of captivity and the easier life — 

 without need to hunt for their living, as in the wild state. 

 In reply to an enquiry, my puntsman writes me : — " I know 



