CHAP, xvi.] WILD DUCKS. 129 



or oyster-catcher. The mallard and teal are the only exclusively 

 night-feeding birds ; the others feed at any time of the night or 

 day, being dependent on the state of the tide to get at the banks 

 of grass and weed, or the sands where they find shell-fish. All 

 ducks are quite as wary in the bright moonlight as in the day 

 time, but at night are more likely to be found near the shore. 

 Between the sea and the land near my abode is a long stretch of 

 green embankment, which was made some years back in order to 

 reclaim from the sea a great extent of land, which then consisted 

 of swampy grass and herbage, overflowed at every high tide, but 

 which now repays the expense of erecting the embankments, by 

 affording as fine a district of corn-land as there is in the kingdom. 

 By keeping the landward side of this grass-wall, and looking 

 over it with great care, at different spots, I can frequently kill 

 several brace of ducks and widgeon in an evening ; though, 

 without a clever retriever, the winged birds must invariably 

 escape. Guided by their quacking, I have also often killed 

 wild ducks at springs and running streams in frosty nights. It 

 is perfectly ea>y to distinguish the birds as they swim about on a 

 cairn moonlight night, particularly if you can get the birds between 

 you and the moon. It is a great assistance in night shooting to 

 paste a piece of white paper along your gun-barrel, half-way down 

 from the muzzle. In the stillness of the night the birds are pecu- 

 liarly alive to sound, and the slightest noise sends them immediately 

 out of shot. Their sense of smelling being also very acute, 

 you must always keep to leeward of them. The mallard duck 

 is more wary than any other kind in these respects, rising imme- 

 diately with loud cries of warning, and putting all the other 

 birds within hearing on the alert. I have seen the wild swans 

 at night swim with a low cheeping note close by me; their white 

 colour, however, makes them more difficult to distinguish than 

 any other bird. It is quite easy to shoot ducks flying by moon- 

 light, as long as you can get them between you and the clear 

 sky. Practice, however, is required to enable the shooter to judge 

 of distance at night time. 



I have frequently caught and brought home young wild ducks. 

 If confined in a yard, or elsewhere, for a week or two with tame 

 birds, they strike up a companionship which keeps them from 

 wandering when set at liberty. Some few years back I brought 



