XI 



ON one of the preternaturally warm days of the pass- 

 winter m g winter (1897-8) I witnessed a very pretty 

 and unusual sight. Three golden- eyes, two 

 full-plumaged drakes, and a duck were performing some 

 extraordinary antics on the smooth surface of the lake. 

 The duck paddled rapidly from one to another of her 

 courtiers, holding her head low along the water, as if 

 imploring them not to fight. The drakes puffed them- 

 selves out like miniature swans, till they were hardly 

 to be recognised as the sleek, shy creatures they gener- 

 ally are, swam towards each other repeatedly, as if 

 about to engage furiously, and then, at the last moment, 

 stopped short, and each alternately threw back his head 

 till the back of the skull rested among the scapular 

 feathers, the bill pointing perpendicularly upwards. It 

 was a very pretty spectacle; the glossy black of the 

 plumage almost disappeared in the puffed-out white 

 feathers. Often and often as I have watched these 

 birds, I never before saw them behave in like manner. 

 Usually their demeanour errs on the side of cominon- 



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