CHAPTER SIXTEEN WILD DUCKS 



A FEW years ago I used to see a great many 

 scaup ducks in the pools and burns near the 

 coast, but now it is very seldom that I meet 

 with a single bird of this kind; the last which 

 I killed here was in the month of July. This is one of the 

 few ducks frequenting the shore which has not a rank or 

 fishy flavour: out of the numerous varieties of birds of the 

 duck kind, I can only enumerate four that are really good 

 eating, namely, the common mallard, the widgeon, the teal, 

 and the scaup duck.* The best of these is the mallard: with 

 us, they breed principally about the most lonely lochs and 

 pools in the hills;sometimes I have seen these birds during 

 the breeding seasonvery far up among the hills: a few hatch 

 and rear their young about the rough ground and mosses 

 near the sea, but these get fewer and fewer every year, in 

 consequence of the increase of draining and clearing which 

 goes on in all the swamps and wild grounds. 



Some few breed in furze-bushes and quiet corners near 

 the mouth of the river, and may be seen in some rushy pool, 

 accompanied by a brood of young ones. Though so wild a 

 bird, theysit close, allowing peopleto passveryneartothem 

 without moving. When they leave their nest, the eggs are 

 always carefully concealed,sothata careless observer would 

 never suppose that the heap of dried leaves and grass that 

 he sees under a bush covers twelve or thirteen duck's esr^s. 

 Occasionally a wild duck fixes on a most unlikely place 



* It is strange that the author should have omitted the pochard (Nyroca/eritia), which 

 is a real delicacy; stranger still that the flesh of the pochard should be so, for it feeds 

 constantly in company with its near relative the tufted duck {Fuligula cristatd), and, 

 like that bird, obtains its food by diving; yet the flesh of the tufted duck is rank and un- 

 palatable. — Ed. 



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