274 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



make the practice good form. I can find no 

 valid reason that is not equally applicable all 

 round, why one should not be contented with a 

 right and left even at wild fowl. 



Darkening the water for a considerable distance, 

 is an immense flock of scaup-ducks, so named, 

 probably, because they usually feed on the mussel- 

 beds, or scalps. They are winter visitors from the 

 North, and arrive late : should the weather remain 

 open, not till nearly Christmas. During their three 

 months of stay, they are the commonest of our 

 estuary ducks. 



There is a prejudice against exclusive feeders 

 on sea organisms as table birds, which ought to 

 shelter many of the ducks, and does shelter some 

 of them from destruction. But, seeing that the 

 scaup-ducks, and many others still more objection- 

 able, find their way to the shops, there must be 

 some means of rendering them palatable. An 

 acquired taste necessarily increases one's range of 

 choice, and, after high game, anything in that 

 .direction should be possible. 



ATarge flock of widgeon are scattered over the 

 flat, half a mile farther up. They are day-feeders, 

 but come up at night when the tide is suitable, and 

 so expose themselves to the tender mercies of the 



