34 THE MOSS BIRDS. 



at its lowest summer level, but directly the heavy rains set in, 

 which we usually experience, yearly, in the early autumn, the 

 ditches overflowed their banks, the low-lying lands were flooded (as 

 they are now) to a depth of several feet, and then for long weary 

 winter months the bare tract was given over to the wild ducks and 

 other wild fowl. They tell a little story about a certain well-known 

 horse breeder, who once stood on the Cut bridge, and looked over 

 the far stretching expanse of country. He noticed the grand turf 

 and the waving fields of knee-deep grass, and then he murmured 

 "What a grand country for breeding horses." Chance brought it 

 about that he saw the same land in early winter, about the middle of 

 November, where for three long miles before him, lay an unbroken 

 sheet of peaty water, save where the gate posts and rush beds, 

 which bound the ditches, stood out here and there amid the dreary 

 waste. He only said quietly " Horses, indeed ! more likely for 

 breeding fish," and then went home again. 



GENUS AN ATI D^.. 



MALLARD. A common resident, breeding plentifully on all the 

 ( Anas boscas.) mosses, also on some of the more secluded " marl " 

 pits, and on some of the slacks nearer the shore. I 

 killed a mallard not long ago,* and on his being 

 opened and cleaned for the table, a few days later, a 

 small white bird's skull was found in his crop. It 

 was the skull of some bird of the finch class, and the 

 only reason I can offer for its being where it was, is, 



* Written by my father about the year 1878. 



