102 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



completely disappearing, to emerge again near the 

 edge of the ice, lower down, perhaps to climb out 

 and swallow what he had caught, if he was lucky 

 enough to get anything. We were not near enough, 

 unfortunately, to see what the food was. Occa- 

 sionally a duck would fish by squatting patiently 

 on the edge of ice, neck and head out over the 

 water, suddenly to dive in like a small boy at the 

 old swimming-hole when a carryall comes by on 

 the road, while others swam about in a back-water, 

 revolving with the eddy. 



Presently we either made some noise or motion 

 which alarmed them or else they agreed among 

 themselves that the fishing was getting poor here 

 (as indeed it was), for one by one they suddenly 

 rose and flew northward, carefully following, at a 

 height of about seventy-five feet, the curves of the 

 river, no doubt seeking other spots of open water. 

 It was interesting to see them take the air. The 

 mergansers cannot rise instanter from a standing 

 start, as it were. Their first motions are clumsy. 

 Facing against the current, each one seemed to 

 heave himself up till he stood on the water, wings 

 out, and then he ran up-stream, his feet kicking 

 back much like the stern paddles of an old Missis- 

 sippi River steamer, till he got headway. But when 

 the needed headway was secured those bright orange 

 legs folded under him, the orange feet made a spot 

 of color behind, the long body straightened out, the 

 neck extended forward, and with a steady beat of 

 wings the bird went by, on the level of our faces as we 

 watched from the high bank, with the speed and the 

 directness of the arrow which its body now resembled. 



