18-1 ]5TRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



in March. Even in mild seasons it is quite exceptional to 

 find Teal on this coast during the winter months. They are 

 essentially lovers of fresh water. After punting for a week 

 in January without seeing a single Teal, I have sprung half 

 a dozen of them from a small fresh-water hurn within a few 

 hundred yards of the salt-slakes. Like all wildfowl that 

 prefer fresh water and its productions, Teal are impatient of 

 cold, and of the risks of having their feeding grounds closed 

 by ice. Hence they move southward to avoid such dangers. 

 Yet, once, during the intensely severe frost early in 1881, I 

 fell in with six of these birds — all drakes — four of which I 

 secured with a shot from a shoulder gun. 



The next four species of game-ducks I must dismiss in 

 a very few words. The Pintail, Gadwall, Garganey, and 

 Shoveller are never found to frequent the north-east coast in 

 winter. Casual stragglers of these species may occur at 

 irregular intervals, or on migration ; but as habitual, or 

 even fairly regular, visitants, the three first named are locally 

 unknown. The Shovellers come every year to breed in 

 certain localities; they arrive at the end of March, go straight 

 to the pond where they intend to breed, nest in May, and as 

 soon as their young can fly, at once depart for Southern 

 Europe and Africa. Of the rest I have never myself met 

 with a single example, and, with the exceptions above defined, 

 they may be regarded (on the north-east coast) as simply 

 non-existent. From what small personal acquaintance I 

 have had with these ducks in other countries, they all 

 appeared strongly addicted to fresh water, both by day and 

 night. Our coast appears to lie north of their winter range. 



The last of the surface-ducks regularly met with l)y the 

 coast-gunner is the Sheld-Duck, a large and handsome species. 

 They are resident with us, breeding in the sand-links, and 

 bringing down their young into the water in July and August, 

 and are more or less common all the year round. But in 

 autumn their ]niml)ers are reinforced tenfold by arrivals from 

 Scandinavia, and in winter I have seen as many as two 

 hundred in a pack, thougli lesser numbers are more usual. 

 Their favourite haunts are the " mussel-scaps," or stretches 

 of mixed sand and mud, where various shell-fish abound, 



