WILD DUCK. 369 



THE WILD DUCK. 



ANAS BO SO HAS. 

 Lacha chinn-naine. Lacha-rhiach. 



IN almost every flock of wild fowl attractive to the sportsman in 

 our western counties, the mallard is by far the commonest species 

 of duck to be met with. It is very abundant on all the islands of 

 both the inner and outer group, and also on the whole of the 

 western mainland from north to south. On the larger sheets of 

 water such as Loch Lomond and Loch Awe, Loch Shiel, Loch 

 Maree, and Loch Assynt vast numbers breed and collect together 

 after the broods are able to fly, until their principal haunts become 

 overcrowded, when they break up into scattered groups, betaking 

 themselves in open weather to moorland marshes, or to the sea- 

 shore when the snow and ice compel them to seek a change. 

 Immense numbers also congregate on the retired parts of some 

 rivers where, especially in protected grounds, they find a safe 

 refuge. In walking through the policies at Duff House, in 

 Banffshire, I was much struck with the extraordinary flights of 

 mallards at a particular pool in the Deveron. There must have 

 been many hundreds together in the pool, and on being approached, 

 they merely swam or flew to the other side of the river. I have 

 seen similar flocks on the lake of Ochtertyre, in Perthshire, and 

 other secluded lochs within private policies throughout both the 

 eastern and western counties of Scotland. The most remarkable 

 assemblage of mallards I ever saw was on the pond at Douglas 

 Castle, Lanarkshire, in the spring of 1870. The birds were so 

 tame as to allow even strangers to approach within six or eight 

 yards of the bank where they sat pruning their feathers, before 

 plunging into the water. Mr Dugald Macdonald has informed 

 me that he has seen hundreds of mallards on a mill-dam near 

 Monymusk, in Aberdeenshire, which were so tame as to come at 

 the call of a miller who fed them. This man no sooner made his 

 appearance, and uttered the peculiar whistle which they were 

 accustomed to hear, than the ducks came flying in from all parts 

 of the pond and surrounding marshes, and alighted within a few 

 yards of where he stood throwing out handfuls of corn. No 

 stranger, however, could ever prevail on them to approach. A 

 very curious instance of this kind of confiding tameness is given 



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