21 



PABA.S. 15 & 16.] 



Three of our Ducks derive names from the shape and 

 colour of their heah^, viz., the Spotbill (which has theheak 

 black vividly spotted yellow at base atid tip) for whom 

 the ornithologists have invented the wonderful equivalent 

 poecilorlyncus for his popular English name : the Shoveller 

 (fljofihiia in the Latin) because he has a bill which you 

 may call either a shovel or a compounder's spatula ; and 

 the Marbled Duck, which has a very narrow bill with two 

 sides parallel, which deserves the Latin name angus- 

 tirostris. 



The colour of his eye is the obvious explanation of 

 the White-eyed Duck's name. 



Habits supply the reason for the names (some none 

 too obvious) of the following, viz., the Diving Ducks as a 

 class are called " Pochards " (pronounced Pokard) because, as 

 Hume points out, Pokard means "diver" either in Norfolk 

 dialect or in Old English. Streperus is quite apt in the 

 Latin name of the Gradwall, pointing to the incessant 

 chatter which the birds keep up when feeding. Wigeon 

 is onomatopoeic, being an attempt to reproduce by tVie 

 human tongue the curious call of the bird (see chapter 

 XII and Key 18). 



16. Something may be said as to where the birds which Kind of 

 are the object of the sportsman's attentions may be found "^^'^-er on ^^ 

 during the day, a time when most of them are not feeding (i^gj 3.) 

 but resting. 



Of all the species treated, the Gadwall and the 

 Common Teal are perhaps the most uliiquitoas. Any 

 piece of water, large or small and of whatever kind, be it 

 river, pond or marsh, seems to suit them. The Pochards 

 are birds of the open water, and none more so than the 

 Red-crested who will lie out in wide open stretches with- 

 out a scrap of cover. The otlier Pochards are not averse 

 from vegetation, but prefer the deeper jhils. The Spot- 

 bill and Shoveller are to be found on the smaller waters. 

 The Shoveller is par excellence the bird of the village 

 pond. Not that he is not to be found almost anywhere 

 else besides, but, if he does visit the larger jfi'ils, he will 

 be met near the shore. The waters the Spotbill likes 

 best are the small weedy ones. Of the remaining varie- 

 ties, which have not been mentioned above, it may be 

 said that they are mainly birds of the larger broads and 

 marshes that have more or less cover, at any rate on the 

 edges ; among them, the Mallard, Common Teal and 

 Garganey are also to be found on rivers, as are the Spot- 

 bill and the Gadwall. That wary bird, the Pintail, dis- 

 trusts high cover, and prefers the protection of low water- 

 plants from which it can easily discern the approach of 

 any danger. 



