192 DUCKS. , 



at last, be so much in need of breath, that, \yyfiring 

 the instant he comes up, you may be able to kill him. 

 The large divers are most savage birds, and will, if 

 wounded and driven to extremity, attack either man, 

 dog, or boat. To kill divers along shore, peep over the 

 banks in windy weather, when they are not so apt to 

 duck the flash. Suffice it to say, that of those birds, 

 which are literally and properly called divers, there are 

 seven kinds to be found in Great Britain, exclusive of 

 six others, which are separately classed as the Genus 

 Mergus. 



DUCKS. 



Including all the various kinds of wild fowl, which 

 are common in, and occasionally migrate to this country, 

 there are sixteen *, which come under the denomination 

 of ducks. 



* BIMACULATED, or CLUCKING DUCK. Anas glocitans 

 French not given. 



BLACK DUCK, SCOTER, or BLACKDIVER. Anas nigra La 

 macreuse. I fell in with several of these birds last winter; and, 

 in my life, I never saw such creatures to swim, to dive, and to 

 carry off shot. They take as hard a blow as a swan ; and will 

 even swim, for a short time, after being shot in the head. 



BURROUGH DUCK, or SHELDRAKE. Anas tadornaLa ta- 

 dorne. 



The young sheldrakes, directly after being hatched 

 in the rabbit burrows, are taken by the parent birds to 

 the sea, where they may be seen in what the boatmen 



* But if there is truth in the new discovery, that the golden-eye 

 and morillon are the same bird, the number would then, of course, 

 bejifleen. 



