154 WILD BIRDS 



likely or sure to deceive the person who has not 

 studied wild creatures. The fox perhaps inevitably 

 is often so presented. Its cunning is given a 

 human form. Surely hunting men sometimes make 

 the fox not too foxy but too human. 



THE GEM EYE 



The pochards and tufted ducks are back on the 

 lake among the birch woods where I have often 

 seen them riding like some miniature fleet in gentle 

 motion ; and the pochard, if we look at it through 

 field-glasses, will show in a favouring light its tiny 

 red flag. This effect is mainly due to the bright 

 chestnut head and neck of the pochard glossed 

 with purple but I am not sure the eye of the bird 

 may not add to it. The pochard has a ruby for its 

 iris. It is one of the most brilliant gem-like eyes 

 of any of our birds, like the emerald which shines 

 in the head of the cormorant. 



Each of the three birds I find at this lake at differ- 

 ent seasons of the year, pochard and tufted duck, 

 and great crested grebe, has gems for eyes. The 

 moorhen, with its eyes of reddish hazel and the coot 

 are not quite so notable, though they may be worth 

 examining. The great crested grebe has a crimson 

 iris, the tufted duck's is golden yellow. The 

 English birds with the gem-like eyes are chiefly 

 ducks, grebes, divers, owls, and perhaps herons. 

 I have talked over this curious question with a man 

 who probably has as long and unbroken an 

 experience of English birds, common and rare alike, 



