WILD DUCKS AND DUCK DECOYING 143 



year. Although found upon inland lochs and rivers, 

 they love to frequent weed or grass-grown ooze and 

 mud-banks, where they sleep and feed. The widgeon 

 is an exception to most of the wild ducks, as it feeds 

 more by day than by night, and, like geese, it is 

 particularly fond of nibbling the short grass on the 

 saltings. It has a wild whistle which resembles 

 the syllable " whew " by which name the bird is 

 known on many parts of the coast. Sometimes 

 during a lull in a spell of rough weather vast flocks 

 concentrate themselves on the ooze, and it is at this 

 time they are sought by the puntsman or fowler. 

 When good shots have been obtained at such masses 

 of birds, over a hundred have been killed at a single 

 discharge, and this explains why widgeon are sold so 

 cheaply in the markets. When winter breaks up 

 the flocks retire northward, only a few remaining 

 to breed on the northern parts of Britain. The 

 widgeon is not known to have nested in England. 



The shoveller is another handsomely-plumaged 

 duck, and has its name from its shovel-shaped bill, 

 by which characteristic it may be known at a glance. 

 It is a winter visitant to our shores, though not in 

 any great numbers, and breeds not unfrequently 

 in several of the south-eastern counties as well as 

 more sparingly in the north. It rarely frequents the 

 sea, being fond of fresh water, and is remarkable 

 in the fact that it does not reach down like other 



