MORE OF THE WILD DUCK FAMILY 241 



that it gives you the shivers to look up at it. The 

 ducks are, to my certain knowledge, over capital 

 feeding-grounds, as the greater part of the shell-fish 

 of various kinds that are used for manure in the 

 great upland fields are dredged for just where they 

 now are. It is a long way from this bleak fore-shore 

 to fir and heather, but somehow the Scoters, when 

 they rise, remind me of the Black Grouse. 



There is a very old but very true saying, that 

 time and tide wait for no man, and indeed my 

 observations are here brought to a rapid close, for 

 suddenly I notice that the tide has turned. That 

 is quite enough to induce me to make for the beach 

 at top speed ; but I do not lose sight of the Scoters, 

 as they come in with the tide, feeding while they 

 float in with^ it. Fowl are capricious in their move- 

 ments, or perhaps it would be more just to say that 

 they appear to be so to those who watch them 

 gathering in great numbers, under certain atmo- 

 spheric influences, and when things alter a bit, 

 going off again no man knoweth whither. As the 

 fowls may be supposed to know their own minds, 

 while those who watch them cannot fathom their 

 secret, many of their movements and actions at 

 times remain to us a mystery. 



When I reached a bend in the shore, I met a 

 shooter, who told me that the Black Scoters were 

 quite as numerous, although more scattered, under 

 the garrison and dockyard walls. He only wished, 

 he said, that they were Black Geese (or Brents), as 

 Black Ducks were no good, " not worth powder and 



