SEA-DUCKS. 225 



with these wild creatures in their bleak and desolate haunts. 

 Hitherto, unfortunately, but few of those who have become 

 enamoured of this sport have paid much attention to, or, at 

 any rate, displayed much knowledge of natural history. 



In the foregoing articles I have described, as far as my 

 opportunities of observation permit, the habits of the dif- 

 ferent groups and species of ducks and geese which are 

 comprised under the term of wildfowl, as they come under 

 the notice of the coast-gunner. But the British ducks are 

 a numerous family, and there remains a section which the 

 punt -gunner never meets with, and of whose existence he 

 might remain wholly unaware, so long as he confined his 

 operations to the punt and the sheltered waters which alone 

 are navigable by these craft. The group of ducks to which I 

 refer do not frequent " rivers, lakes, or arms of the sea"; 

 they do not enter harbours or creeks, but their haunts are 

 exclusively on the open sea itself. The sea-ducks comprise 

 the Scoter and the Velvet Scoter, the Eider, the Long-tailed 

 Duck, and, to a less extent, the Scaup. 



The last-named, as already described, is not infrequently 

 met with inside harbours, where they go to feed on mussels 

 and such-like shell-fish. Still they are mainly sea-ducks, 

 and a favourite resort is a rock-bound, weed-covered bay on 

 the open coast. Under the shelter of a long black reef or 

 scar, or within a narrow bay on a rocky coast, a company of 

 Scaup will take up their quarters for the whole winter, and 

 seldom leave the spot, unless disturbed by man, or driven 

 out by a heavy sea. From their unsuspicious nature, it is 

 not difficult to approach them, and a pretty sight it is to 

 watch a company of them in such a place all busily engaged 

 on their every-day employment. The nearly white back of 

 an old drake contrasts prettily with the dark weed-covered 

 reef along which he cruises, ever and anon diving close under 

 the rocks to study conchology among the waving fronds and 

 sea-tangles which grow beneath him. 



The Eider resembles the Scaup in many of its habits, and 

 both ducks are intimately acquainted with the local geography 

 of the sea-bottom : all its depths for miles, and the position 



Q 



