THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 531 



1844-45, I shot as many as fifty-four in one afternoon, bags of some 

 forty having frequently fallen to my share on other occasions. I 

 ought not to omit to mention here that at that time we had still to 

 make shift with percussion guns ; and with one's fingers more like 

 icicles than living flesh and blood, putting on the caps was by no 

 means an agreeable business ; still, as one did it for pleasure, there 

 could be no talk of discomfort. The seamy side of the sport only 

 began to be felt when it ceased to be productive. 



Large numbers of Ducks are also caught in nets, which are put 

 out near the islands in shallow water, so that they are left dry at 

 low tide. These nets, which are eighteen feet square, are made of 

 strong thread, and have pretty wide meshes ; along the margins a 

 number of corks are attached for the purpose of keeping the net 

 afloat. A line is attached at each of the four corners of the net, 

 having a stone tied to its end, the weight of which is sufficient to 

 hold the net in position, even when the water is somewhat agitated ; 

 the length of these lines is so adjusted that, as the net is raised by 

 the corks with the rising tide, they may keep it stretched out hori- 

 zontally below the surface at a little above half high-water mark. 

 The Ducks, which dive very actively after their food small fishes 

 and Crustacea in their pursuit of these get to the spot over which 

 the net is stretched, and are caught in the latter as they are in the 

 act of returning to the surface. Their supply of air being already 

 exhausted, death soon ensues, and the spoil is gathered in at the 

 next low tide. The catch is more productive at night, partly 

 because the ducks then come close in to shore in larger numbers, 

 and also because the cleverer ones among them are then less able 

 to avoid the net, though they must be sufficiently sharp-sighted to 

 be able to discover their food at the bottom of the sea in the 

 dark. In regard to the food of these birds, we were once enabled 

 to make an interesting observation : during one stormy night in 

 winter a ship stranded, and went to pieces on the long southern 

 extremity of the dune. Its cargo, consisting of small grey horse 

 beans, was carried by the current along the sea-bottom far out to 

 the east. This undoubtedly quite new dish was so much approved 

 of by the ducks, that thousands of them assembled and remained 

 on the spot, where, in a depth of about ten fathoms, this evidently 

 very welcome food was spread in rich abundance. All the birds 

 obtained from this quarter were literally enveloped in fat, which, 

 unlike its normal condition, was very white and palatable. These 

 birds had not a trace of the fishy taste peculiar to the flesh of 

 these Ducks, and specially pronounced in old males. 



The Common Scoter nests from Iceland through northern 

 Europe and northern Asia, as far as Behring's Strait. The only 



