236 THE PEAT ISLE. 



with what may drift there from the feeding-ground of 

 the divers. 



In very severe weather, especially during a snow-storm, 

 both ducks and widgeon are apt to trust to the diving 

 tribe as their purveyors. It would be difficult for any one 

 who has not witnessed it, to imagine the supply left by a 

 flock of dun-birds on a lee shore. I have seen as much as 

 a cart-load drifted on not more than fifty yards of coast. 



The wild-duck sometimes feeds by diving, but this is 

 only in spring, after pairing. The dives are very short, 

 and it is probable that at this time they are feeding on 

 some water-insect which they could not find at the margin. 

 In winter they never feed farther from shore than they 

 can sound the bottom, by sinking their heads and turning 

 up their tails, like the domestic duck. An artificial 

 supply of food will sometimes cause moss-ducks to collect 

 in small flocks on running streams. The river Gala flows 

 sluggishly just below the town of Galashiels, bringing 

 down the refuse from the houses, and here I never 

 missed seeing ducks in hard weather. They stuck to the 

 place most pertinaciously, although I repeatedly fired at 

 them from behind a wall and killed several. I solved the 

 mystery one morning by finding half a potato, neatly peeled 

 and cut for the saucepan, in the bill of a mallard I had just 

 shot. So I perceived that this spot was a kind of nucleus 

 round which a quantity of the rubbish had collected. 



But I have flown far away from my island, where, in 

 summer as in winter, there is always some rare and shy 

 sojonrner. At the end of some long point, immersed to 



