UPLAND SHOOTING. 307 



alarmed by an enemy on shore, his wont is not to fly, but to 

 swim majestically away. 



" Wido^eoii* and Teal are approached in the same way v. < 

 "Wild-ducks, only the Widgeon are less shy than the Ducks, anl 

 the Teal than the Widgeon. You may sometimes, in calm 

 weather, see Widgeon in a large flock purring and whistling a 

 couple of hundred yards from the shore ; you need give your- 

 self no trouble about them, as they will probably not leave their 

 resting-place until they feed in the evening. Always try to get 

 a heavy shot at Widgeon, which, with a little patience, you may 

 generally accomplish. Teal are usually in small flocks; so 

 that, if you can get two or three in line, you had better fire, for 

 fear of losing the sitting chance altogether. I once killed six 

 at a shot ; but, except when they collect in small ponds and 

 drains about the loch-side, so good an opportunity seldom oc- 

 curs. I have occasionally seen Shovellers on our lochs ; but 

 only in the hai'dest winters. They resemble Wild-ducks in their 

 habits : the only one I ever shot was among a flock of Ducks. 



" Good sport need never be expected when the loch is large, 

 as many of the fowl swim up creeks, and among the morasses in 

 shore, where it is difficult even to get a flying shot ; while those 

 that remain on the margin of the loch are so concealed by the 

 bushes, &c., that it is quite impossible to see them. The lower 

 the loch the better ; at all events, the shore should bo clearly 

 defined. At such times wild-fowl have always favorite haunts 

 for feeding and resting. 



" There is a common saying, that specimens of all the diffe- 

 lent kinds of water fowl which frequent the loch in winter, pre- 

 sent themselves during the hai-\'est moon. This is erroneous ; 

 for even the Morillon, earliest of the diver tribe, seldom appears 

 so soon, and the Tufted and Scaup Ducks, Dun-birds, &;c., never 



* A ditTereut bird, though not unlike our Widgeon, Arum Amcricnnn, tho 

 Bald-jiate. It is worthy of notice, thiit the Widgeon of tiie Chesapeake is con- 

 sidered the shyest aud most difficult to tole, of all the Ducks which frequent 

 those waters. 



