BEAUTY OF WILD DUCK 239 



as peculiar to him and his, as are the gracefully 

 outward-curling feathers of the full-grown black- 

 cock ? It is interesting, though, perhaps, rather 

 humiliating, to remark that these colours are 

 substantially retained, though with far less intensity, 

 in the heavy and unwieldy form of his domestic 

 counterpart. 



The wild duck as I have said, is indigenous 

 to England. But, as in the case of other wading 

 or web-footed birds, the progress of agriculture, the 

 draining of the fen-countries, and the total dis- 

 appearance of great inland lakes, like Whittlesea- 

 Mere, have enormously reduced its numbers ; and 

 it is to the autumnal migration from the Orkneys 

 and Shetlands, from Iceland, from Lapland, and 

 from Scandinavia generally, that we owe some nine- 

 tenths of the vast quantity of birds of this species 

 which are found, in favoured parts of England, 

 during the winter months. Is it not possible that 

 the depression of agriculture, which is so rapidly 

 causing land that has been reclaimed to revert to 

 its original state, may also bring back some of 

 its older and dispossessed inhabitants ? If so, in 

 the eyes of the naturalist at all events, though 

 not, perhaps, of the much-suffering landlord and 

 his tenants, the agricultural depression will not 



