114 FIELD NOTES FOR THE YEAR. 



CHAPTER XI V. 



MARCH. 



Wild Swans Loch of Spynie ; Wild Fowl on it Pochard Carrion Crows 

 Death of Wild Swan Domestication of Wild Fowl ; flavour of Arrival 

 of Geese. 



EVERY day now shows the approach of spring. The mallards 

 are in pairs in all the pools near the lakes, taking to the 

 larger sheets of water only during the daytime. My boys 

 catch plenty of sea trout in the river ; these fish rise better 

 in the month of March than at any other time. I have seen 

 for sonic time six wild swans on one of the lakes ; they 

 appear to be of two different kinds, three of them being 

 much larger than the others. The larger birds, too, are much 

 more wary and wild than the smaller ; at the head of them 

 all is the largest swan I ever saw. 



The swans frequent one particular lake, seldom alighting 

 on any other piece of water. This lake is peculiarly open, 

 and very difficult of approach, which is doubtless one reason 

 for their fixing on it ; another is, that in many places it is so 

 shallow that they can reach with their long necks the grassy 

 plants growing at the bottom, on the roots of which plants 

 they feed. Whenever I go that way there are these swans 

 surrounded by numbers of ducks, widgeon, teal, &c., who are 

 feeding with them and looking out for the scraps and rem- 

 nants of the plants which they pull up. 



Day by day, at the beginning of March, the brent geese 

 seem to increase in numbers : they feed on the grassy banks 

 on the shores of the neck of land called the " Bar." 



I drove over to Gordonston to shoot ducks on Spynie. 

 Although the lochs were crowded with birds, the day was too 

 fine and calm to enable me to kill many. However, I man- 

 aged to shoot a few mallards and teal by rowing along and 

 quietly in and out the tall reeds which grow in patches on 

 the lake. The teal are now very lively, flying constantly in 

 small companies and keeping up a perpetual whistling. The 

 coots are always conspicuous amongst the other wild fowl, 

 swimming high in the water and moving quickly about. On 

 the islands I found several otter seats in the rushes, where 

 they appear to make forms like hares. 



The keeper caught a beautiful male pochard which had 

 been wounded somewhere in the body, b^^t apparently was 

 not much hurt, although disabled from flying. I took it 



