JAN. WILD-DUCK — LITTLE AUK. 171 



to recede, the birds come out on the banks and 

 graze like geese. 



This season the wild-ducks have found out a new 

 kind of food — the remains of the diseased potatoes 

 which have been left in the fields. My attention 

 was first called to their feeding on them by observ- 

 ing that my domesticated wild-ducks had managed 

 to dig well into a heap of half-rotten potatoes, which 

 had been put partly under ground, and then covered 

 over with a good thickness of earth, as being unfit 

 for pigs or any other animal. However, the wild- 

 ducks had scented them out, and, although well 

 supplied with food, they had dug into the heap in all 

 directions, feeding greedily on the rotten potatoes ; 

 in fact, leaving their corn for them. I then fouDd 

 that the wild-ducks from the bay flew every evening 

 to the potato-fields to feed on the roots which had 

 been left; and so fond were they of them, that I often 

 saw the ducks rise from the fields in the middle of 

 the day — in the evening it was always a sure place 

 to get a brace or two. The mallard is very omnivor- 

 ous at this season : in the crop of one killed were 

 oats, small seed, shrimps, and potatoes, all the pro- 

 duce of his researches during the preceding night. 



We find the remains of the little auk every- 

 where ; some I have seen amongst the furze bushes, 

 etc., at the distance of fully four miles from the sea. 



