264 Manual of the Game Birds of Jtidia. 



is certainly one of the wildest and most 

 watchful birds in existence, one singular 

 fact has always struck the writer as being 

 among the most inexplicable features in 

 wildfowling — namely, the comparative ease 

 with which these Ducks can often be 

 approached in broad daylight in a gunning- 

 punt. . . . Yet, strange to relate, the 

 Mallards, the finest and most valuable 

 fowl of them all, despite the experience of 

 generations, do not yet seem fully to have 

 learned to recognise the deadly nature of 

 that low white craft. Time after time I 

 have ' shoved ' up to within sixty, even 

 fifty, yards of their still unconscious 

 flotilla, drifting slowly along on the tide, 

 all inanimate and apparently asleep, 

 hardly a head to be seen. Even after 

 the cruel disappointment of a miss-fire 

 they have not risen at once. Up go their 

 necks, full stretch, at the snap of the cap, 

 and their deep-toned and extremely elo- 

 quent ' q-u-a-r-k ! q-u-a-r-k ! ' is barely 

 audible, so gently and suspiciously is the 

 alarm note sounded, but they do not rise 

 till one has had almost time to replace the 

 cap, but not quite." 



Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey observes in 

 "The Fowler in Ireland":— "A mallard 

 is not such an expert diver when wounded 



