420 FEATHERED GAME 



going they fly fast, their wings making consid- 

 erable noise from their rapid motion. With all 

 these drawbacks the Ruddy is wonderfully 

 quick either in the air or on the water. He is 

 quite capable of taking care of himself once he 

 gets it into his head that harm is intended. He 

 can get under water with a celerity that falls 

 little short of the marvelous. One of his tricks 

 has always been a mystery to me : he will sink 

 himself completely beneath the surface without 

 diving — simply settles down like a sinking 

 craft and beats a retreat under water where 

 he is as much at home as any duck of them all. 

 I have seen black ducks when they thought 

 themselves undiscovered and their wit said it 

 was dangerous to fly, sink themselves so that 

 only the head showed above water, and have 

 seen shelldrakes settle down in the same style 

 until only their heads were visible and so go 

 darting and zig-zagging away when they had 

 flown in and settled among a bunch of decoys 

 before discovering the cheat, but I have never 

 seen any of these go completely below the sur- 

 face without an attempt at diving as does the 

 Ruddy. 



On the water he rides so much deeper than 



