VP ild Ducks and Duck Decoying. 203 



congener is fairly descriptive. The last of the 

 surface-feeding ducks is the pintail, and if this is 

 also described as handsome it is because there 

 are but few of the wild ducks which are not. It 

 is one of the most graceful, too, and owing to 

 the long central tail feathers of the male is 

 sometimes called the sea-pheasant. Although 

 often obtained by fowlers along the coast, it is 

 also found on inland decoys, and feeds upon 

 aquatic plants, insect larva, and molluscs. Its 

 flesh is next in delicacy to that of the teal, and is 

 held in estimation at table. It is much more 

 rare in the northern than in the southern 

 counties, and off the coast of Cornwall thirty- 

 seven birds have been bagged at one shot. 

 The pintail breeds but rarely in England. 



We now come to the diving ducks. Speaking 

 generally, the " surface " ducks haunt fresh 

 water ; diving ducks the sea. The most 

 prominent of these are the scaup ; common, 

 velvet, and surf scoters ; the pochard, golden- 

 eye, and tufted duck. 



The inland sportsman or decoy-man knows 

 little of the diving ducks. Some of them keep 

 close to land, but for the most part they are at 

 home far out at sea. It is interesting to watch 

 parties of these playing and chasing each other 

 over the crests of the waves, and seeming in- 

 different to the roughest weather. The three 

 scoters mav be met with fiftv miles from land 



