138 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



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. 



SURFACE FEEDERS 



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 to 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 adaptation only takes place during 

 the breeding season it is probably done for protective 

 reasons. 



