278 THE DIVING DUCKS 



British Isles it is only known as a winter visitor, chiefly to our eastern 

 coasts, and often in considerable flocks. At this season it very rarely 

 occurs inland, but, curiously enough, visits the lakes of Switzerland in 

 hard winters. It is a lively, active, playful, rather quarrelsome and 

 noisy bird. Though most figures represent it with depressed tail, it 

 is usually carried in an oblique position, and when excited is raised 

 almost perpendicularly. This is well shown in Mr. J. G. Millais' life- 

 like sketch of a flock about to rise in The Wildfowler in Scotland, p. 157. 

 The loud musical call of the male is very noticeable, and can be heard 

 to a great distance. It is rather freely rendered by Scotch hearers as 

 "coal art can'le licht," and the Orcadian name " calloo" is another 

 attempt to represent the sound. Naumann makes a more careful 

 attempt to reproduce it by the words, " au auh lik a a a auh lik," or 

 "ah a gleck, a ah gleck," while Hantzsch simply writes it as variations 

 of the short a sound and the long drawn out au, sometimes a au a. 1 In 

 the northern summer this musical call may be heard not only by day 

 but also right through the night. The note of the female is a low 

 "wed, wad" or "wack, wack" From the earliest days of spring until 

 the young are hatched these notes may be heard continually, and 

 in the autumn and winter months they are also often heard. Even 

 before these ducks leave our southern coasts in March a good deal of 

 courting goes on. Bolam describes the manoeuvres of a feeding flock 

 at this season, when shifting their ground, as they are continually 

 doing. " All the birds rise simultaneously, as though by signal, fly a 

 short distance, and dash as suddenly into the water again, when, as 

 a rule, every bird instantly dives. On reappearing on the surface 

 they are generally somewhat scattered, but all draw together again 

 before another dive is made, which, like the last, is taken by all the 

 flock at the same moment. They go down with a violent plunge, 

 often kicking the water high into the air above them." 2 Saxby notes 

 that when diving for food they stay under water for about fifty-five 



1 Robert Gray's rendering is " our, o, u, ah." 



1 G. Bolam, Birds of Northumberland and the Eastern Borders, p. 400. 



