170 THE BIBDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



and spend the day in washing, sleeping, and preening 

 their feathers, either on the water or on its banks. 

 When severe frost has turned the surface of the lakes 

 into ice, the Ducks resort in great numbers to our 

 sea-coasts, and, indeed, may be found wherever they 

 can meet with quiet, shelter, and open water. No 

 bird is more naturally wary than the Mallard, but 

 a very severe frost, or a sudden rainy thaw, seems to 

 a great extent to paralyse their sense of danger, and 

 such seasons are the harvest-time of the wild-fowler, 

 or perhaps more correctly of the gunner; for in the 

 first case the decoys are frozen over and temporarily 

 useless, and in the second, the fowl are uneasy and 

 restless, constantly flying from place to place, and 

 will seldom pay any attention to the decoy-ducks or 

 dog. In sharp bright frosts, some thirty or more 

 years ago, a walk with gun and retriever along the 

 banks of the Nen and its tributary brooks was by no 

 means an unattractive or profitless pastime, and 

 although we seldom came home overladen with spoil, 

 we still more seldom returned without something 

 more to show than a fine appetite and a keen sense 

 of having spent a pleasant day; the variety and 

 uncertain nature of the sport, and the chances of 

 observation afforded by these rambles, constituted to 

 me at least an invincible charm. The marking down 

 and stalking up to a cunning old Mallard or a bunch 

 of Teal, a few snap shots at Snipes, the occasional 

 appearance of some comparatively uncommon wild- 

 fowl, the generally fruitless scheming for a shot at 

 Wild Geese, the frequent treat of seeing the stoop of 

 a wild Falcon, the rare opportunity of a successful 

 right and left at Golden Plovers, the solemn conclave 

 of Herons gathered at a soft place, and a hundred 



