118 FIELD NOTES FOR THE YEAR. 



After two or three generations of any bird have been 

 domesticated the young ones lose all their wild inclinations, 

 tameness becoming hereditary with them, as skill and the 

 power of benefiting by education become hereditary in dogs 

 to a very striking degree. 



Though the flesh of the wild sheldrake is quite unfit to eat, 

 being excessively rank and fishy, the birds, if domesticated 

 and fed on proper food, would soon lose this strong flavour. 

 The common mallard, though so excellent a bird when feeding 

 in the stubble fields, is often rank and bad when driven by 

 deep snows and frost to feed on seaweed, shellfish, &c. 

 Widgeon and brent geese also, and in fact all wild fowl, are 

 good or bad eating according to where they feed, in the same 

 way that the dog of the Chinese, which is fatted for the table, 

 must be very unlike in flavour to a foxhound who has been 

 fed on horseflesh. 



The bernacle goose seldom pays us a visit, but I saw a few 

 one day near the bar. I had one of my boys with me, who 

 was anxious to get a shot at a wild swan which was swimming 

 about one of the lochs, and when we came back from an 

 unsuccessful pursuit of him the geese had left the place. This 

 bird is numerous only on the west coast. 



About the 20th of March I s iw a few white-fronted geese 

 feeding in the swamps near the lakes. 



On the 22nd the dabchicks come to their breeding places 

 in the smaller lochs, where there are plenty of rushes, and 

 the sheldrakes now come frequently inland. About the 

 middle of March the black-backed gulls are very noisy in the 

 bay. 



As the old keeper saw some bean geese pass over the house, 

 I took a long walk on the 12th to look for them in their 

 usual feeding-places, but without success. The old man, a 

 true "laudator temporis acti," complains that the whole 

 country is spoilt by " drainings and improvements," which 

 banish the wild fowl from their former haunts. 



When the frogs begin to croak in the pools and ditches the 

 mallards are sure to be found in these places every evening 

 and morning. 



23rd. Nunc avis in ramo tecta laremque parat. The wood- 

 pigeons are building in the shrubberies close to the window. 



How beautifully the different birds are constructed for 

 their different modes of feeding ! The tender nerves at the 

 end of the bills of the woodcock, snipe, and curlew enable 



