158 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



their knitting together, you may have a capital right and left 

 when they come up from diving. I, however, should be loath 

 to lose the opportunity of the sitting shot. 



But the case quite alters when dun-birds have been fired 

 at once or twice. Like deer under similar circumstances, they 

 become most wary and suspicious ; and although, upon the 

 first appearance of the flock, a novice may easily procure a 

 heavy shot, yet, after they have been surprised by the leaden 

 shower, the most dexterous wild-fowl stalker may often be 

 baffled in his attempts to approach them. 1 This should make 

 the owners of wild-fowl lochs most particular to keep all 

 quiet near the feeding-ground of large flocks of fowl, but 

 especially of the dun-birds. 



I may advance another claim why the first arrival of dun- 

 birds should not lightly be disturbed viz., the supply of 

 food they cast up for other wild-fowl. Widgeon and ducks 

 feed upon the blades which float on the surface of the water, 

 after the roots have been torn up from the bottom, nipped off, 

 and devoured by the dun-birds. They are thus unwittingly 

 made to minister to the wants of their poorer brethren. 

 When, therefore, the sportsman sees a tempting flock of 

 widgeon in attendance upon their purveyors, who have been 

 scared away from the shore, to dive on a too distant shallow, 

 it is of no use to wait for them ; for, be the wind ever so keen, 

 the widgeon will not leave the plentiful supply of grass food 

 cast up by the diving birds. But with a cutting wind and no 

 dun-birds to depend on for food, ducks, but especially widgeon, 

 never try the patience long ere they seek the shelter of the 

 shore. 



There are many other divers that frequent our lochs, such 

 as the tufted and scaup ducks, &c., but they may all be ap- 

 proached in the same way as the golden-eye and morillon ; 



1 When dun-birds have been so persecuted as to frighten them away to try 

 fresh feeding-ground, they are again not difficult of approach until fired upon in 

 heir new quarters, when they become wilder than ever. 



