62 UNDER GREEN LEA VES 
has formed here, and the water is certainly suggestive 
of fish. I had put up my tackle, but I must see what 
there is in the culvert under the road. So from my 
bag I take five or six worms, and pitching one right 
in the mouth of it, I wait. No sign ; I pitch again 
all quiet. The third I pitch a little on one side of the 
mouth of the culvert. There is a rush, and a boil up, 
and the worm is gone. After this we drop them in 
the main current, about a yard from the mouth. Out 
shoot a dozen fish, with a rush ; first-rate fish. Having 
learned all we wanted to know, we can pass on. 
Wild ducks, both the pure wild birds and the half- 
wild ones, breed up in these moors. It is impossible 
to tell which is which. They nest on knolls and 
heathy kobs,the very driest spots they can find in the 
heather. Water is all about them, but their nesting 
places are dry. After many years of patient watching, 
I have come to the conclusion that this is to preserve 
their young ones from the numerous enemies that are 
on the watch for them at that time, until they are 
quite capable of taking care of themselves. They 
know when the time of danger comes round, and they 
watch for the foe above and below. Feeling they are 
safest away from the water, they nest in the haunts of 
the blackcock and the ring-ouzel. Who that did not 
know the habits of the creatures would ever expect to 
