DIVING-DUCKS 357 



I would not have thought them sufficiently agile to catch 

 any of the true fishes, but one winter day (December 5th), 

 while watching- a golden-eye busily diving among the ice 

 on a small inland pool, I was surprised to see it capture 

 several fish. Every third or fourth dive, it brought up 

 a small silvery fish — minnows or sticklebacks apparently — 

 which it spent some time tugging at and chewing on the 

 surface before finally swallowing. When feeding, the 

 golden-eyes are usually scattered about the ''guts," and if 

 for the sake of experience, or in the absence of other game 

 (for it is tolerably certain that no shot will be obtained), one 

 tries to "set up" to a pair, their conduct is as follows : — 

 They continue diving, first one then the other, often both 

 under at once, and the gunboat draws nearer and nearer. 

 There is no sign of alarm, and as our friends appear quite 

 unconscious of our approach, one begins to hope against 

 hope. But it is all vanity. They are deceptive birds, and 

 at two gunshots' distance, without a sign of warning, they 

 are off — they seem to rise literally from mid-water, flying, 

 as it were, from the very sea-bottom without tarrying a 

 single instant on the surface. It is rare for many of 

 these ducks to be obtained by punt-gunners in winter 

 (though one sees them almost daily) except in very severe 

 weather. Thus one January day, when the thermometer 

 stood a few degrees below zero, a bunch of about a dozen 

 not only allowed my brother Walter to approach within 

 shot, but — the gun having missed fire — to re-cap, by which 

 time, being very near, the charge stopped nearly the 

 whole lot, though several escaped by diving under the ice. 

 These birds had probably been driven down to the coast 

 by the seventy of the frost from some moorland lough ; in 

 which situations (as described earlier in this book) golden- 

 eyes remain comparatively tame and unsuspicious through- 



