THE WILD DUCK. 77 



They are not, however, so easily obtained as might be imagined, 

 owing to their diving and concealing themselves among the dense 

 aquatic herbage. About the wild lakes of Donegal and Connaught 

 I have often come unawares upon wild ducks in their breeding- 

 haunts. It is unnecessary to specify localities, of wliich there 

 are some in every county in the island. Mr. R. Davis, jun., 

 observes (1842) that "Wild ducks seem to admire tliick fiu'ze- 

 covers as nesting-places. A fox-cover near Clonmel is frequently 

 resorted to for this purpose. They sometimes build on the tops 

 of old walls covered with herbage — brambles, &c.^^ 



The first time I rode through the finely wooded and watered 

 Shane's Castle Park, on the borders of Lough Neagh, in the 

 month of January, now many years ago, I, with surprise, remarked 

 that of the immense numbers of these birds which arose into the 

 air, a duck and drake almost invariably sprang together, or soon 

 joined in flight, thus giving indication of their being already 

 paired. In the month of December, too, I think that I have' 

 observed them paired in that park, but have no positive note 

 on the subject. In the autumn, also, when they frequently 

 betake themselves in the evening to the corn-fields in the 

 neighbourhoood of Lough Neagh to feed, they are said com- 

 monly to fly in pairs.* Mr. Waterton has since, in his 

 ' Essays on Natural History,'t 'given as his opinion " that the 

 old birds remain in pairs through the entire year, and that the 

 young ones which had been hatched in the preceding spring 

 choose their mates long before they depart for the Arctic regions 

 in the following year." An observation similar to the above has 

 been made on the other side of the Atlantic. Audubon observes : 

 — " The mallards that remain with us during the whole year, and 

 breed on the banks of the Mississippi, or Lake Michigan, or in the 

 beautiful meadows that here and there border the Schuylkil in 

 Pennsylvania, begin to pair in the very heart of winter.''^ This 

 author gives a full and interesting history of the mallard, but to 



* Oa such occasions they are shot by fowlers, who not only conceal themselves 

 behind the fences, but within the stocks of corn. 



t Vol. i. p. 200, 3rJ eilition. + Vol. iii. p. 07. 



