THE GAME-DUCKS. 18B 



not a dozen nights throughout the whole winter, on an 

 average, when all the conditions are even fairly suitable ; on 

 some of these it may not he convenient to go out, and now 

 the useless and mistaken legal restrictions have deprived us 

 of the month of March one of the best we had. The pro- 

 portion of Wigeon killed annually is very small indeed, 

 compared with the numbers of these birds. I have roughly 

 estimated it, in different seasons, as varying from ten to 

 fifteen per cent. 



Before daybreak, or, at latest, on the first symptoms of 

 dawn, both Mallard and Wigeon depart for the open sea to 

 spend the day, and there, on our exposed coast, they are 

 utterly inaccessible to man, whether by punt or sailing boat. 

 I have seen (in pictures) a dinghey running into a page of 

 sea literally strewn with dead and dying Mallards. This is 

 not my experience in actual practice. The world is wide, 

 and there may be spots where such feats are possible : I will 

 believe when I have seen them performed. The game- 

 ducks at sea I have always found fivefold more wary than 

 the regular sea-ducks, and have never yet shot, or seen 

 shot, a single Mallard or Wigeon from a sailing boat at sea. 

 Often as I have run down on them, merely for the pleasure 

 of seeing, say, a thousand ducks spring at once from the 

 sea, I never knew them allow a boat to approach within shot, 

 or, for that matter, within a quarter of a mile. 



Next in importance to the two above-described ducks is 

 the Teal ; but, in my experience, these game little fowl are 

 but rarely met with on the north-east coast during the winter 

 months. As early as August some appear on the salt water, 

 and during September and early October they are plentiful 

 enough, and right glad is the punter to welcome them. No 

 sight is more gratifying than a flight of Teal, and no sound 

 more pleasing to his ear than their low clucking note ; for, 

 though usually unsuspicious of a punt, no fowl in existence 

 is smarter or more game-like in springing, or requires more 

 care and judgment to secure an effective shot. But in the 

 month of October all these Teal appear to have passed on 

 further south, or perhaps inland. Barely are any seen on 

 the salt water after that date, until their return northwards 



