DIVING-DUCKS. 221 



selves ; it is, iu fact, often ludicrous to observe the immense 

 distances at which their almost irrational timidity bids them 

 decamp. Spending the night at sea, they enter the estuaries 

 at dawn, and for the period of daylight succeed in setting at 

 naught all the arts and stratagems of man — to them indeed, 

 and to the Golden-eyes, belongs alone of all their watchful 

 tribe the credit of outmanoeuvring and nullifying the most 

 elaborate devices of their arch-enemy. They systematically 

 enter waters which are as free and open to punts as to them- 

 selves, remain there for their own purposes all day, and, 

 evading every artifice to outwit them, leave again at night 

 for the open sea, without losing the number of their mess. 

 Of course, in punting year after year, a stray chance does 

 turn up at intervals to work in a successful shot, but as a 

 rule Mergansers and Golden-eyes are more than a match for 

 the most skilful fowler that ever went afloat. 



The only shots I have known at Mergansers from a punt 

 have occurred either when they are caught sunning them- 

 selves round a bend in a curving sand-bank — this is a habit 

 they often indulge in at mid-day, when a dozen may some- 

 times be seen basking together — or in a narrow " gut " 

 where a punt can creep up unseen. They rarely, however, 

 trust themselves in such dangerous spots, and if they should 

 happen to find themselves hemmed in in a cnl dc sac, will 

 attempt to dive back past the punt rather than fly over 

 "dry" land (or what Mergansers may regard as such). 

 They feed entirely on shrimps and small fish, and are quite 

 uneatable. There are, however, few more beautiful objects 

 than a newly-killed Merganser drake. As he lies on the 

 fore-deck — the weird, half-uncanny expression in his blood- 

 red eye still undimmed ; the slim, snake-like neck and glossy 

 head, adorned with its long double crest — one-half standing 

 straight out backwards, like the " toppin " of a Peewit, the 

 other pointing downwards towards the back (not pendent, as 

 invariably represented in books) ; then the lovely but evan- 

 escent salmon hues which tinge his breast— all these points, 

 together with the bold and brightly contrasted plumage, 

 combine to form as beautiful an object as any that Nature 

 has produced. 



