WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



at night swim with a low cheeping note close by me; their 

 white colour, however, makes them more difficult to dis- 

 tinguish than any other bird. It is quite easy to shoot ducks 

 flying by moonlight, as long as you can get them between 

 you and the clear sky. Practice, however, is required to 

 enable the shooter to judge of distance at night time. 



I have frequently caught and brought home young wild 

 ducks. If confined in a yard, or elsewhere, for a week or 

 two with tame birds, they strike upa companionshipwhich 

 keeps them from wandering when set at liberty. Some few 

 years back I brought home three young wild ducks: two 

 of them turned out to be drakes. I sent away my tame 

 drakes, and, in consequence, the next season had a large 

 family of half-bred and whole wild ducks, as the tame 

 and wild breed together quite freely. The wild ducks 

 which have been caught are the tamest of all; throwing off 

 all their natural shyness, they follow their feeder, and will 

 eat corn out of the hand of any person with whom they 

 are acquainted. The half-bred birds are sometimes pinion- 

 ed, as they are inclined to fly away for the purpose of mak- 

 ing their nests at a distance: at other times they never 

 attempt to leave the field in front of the house. A pair or 

 two always breed in the flower-garden. They appear to 

 have a great penchant for forming their nests in certain 

 flower-beds, and they are allowed to have their own way 

 in this respect, as their elegant and high-bred appearance 

 interests even the gardener, enemy as he is to all intruders 

 on his favourite flowers. 



These birds conceal their eggs with great care, and I 

 have often been amused at the trouble the poor duck is 



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