T 96 Poachers and Poaching. 



and " diving " ducks. Those which comprise 

 the first class feed exclusively upon the surface 

 and inhabit fresh water ; the latter are mostly 

 marine forms, and in procuring their food the 

 whole body is submerged. Among the surface- 

 feeding ducks are the shoveller, sheldrake, 

 mallard, pintail, gadwall, -garganey, widgeon, and 

 teal ; whilst the latter include the tufted duck, 

 scaup, scoter, surf scoter, velvet scoter, pochard, 

 and golden-eye. Other British ducks which 

 would come naturally into one or other of these 

 groups, but are more or less rare, are the eiders, 

 American widgeon, red-crested pochard, smew, 

 the mergansers, and the buffel-headed, long- 

 tailed, ruddy sheld, Steller's western, ferruginous, 

 and harlequin ducks. 



From the fact of their resorting to inland 

 waters the surface-feeding ducks are perhaps the 

 best known. All of them are shy, wary birds, 

 and as difficult of approach as to bring down. 

 Nearly all the species which inhabit fresh water 

 feed during the night, and fly off to the hills to 

 rest and sleep during the day. All of them are 

 birds of considerable powers of flight, and an 

 interesting fact in their economy is the power of 

 the males to change their summer plumage so as 

 to resemble that of the females. As this adapta- 

 tion only takes place during the breeding season 

 it is probably done for protective reasons. 



The common mallard or wild duck, and the 



