104 ANATIDJi:. 



that alarms tlieui, evcni when in full or rapid flight, instantly 

 throw themselves upwards with surprising quickness. On the 

 occasions alluded to they sometimes fly singly, but more fre- 

 quently in small flocks, so many as twenty rarely appearing in 

 company; but, in frosty weather, from two to three hundred 

 have been seen on wing together. The males often utter their 

 whistling note during these flights. The most I have heard of 

 being obtained by a barrel-shooter, during the brief period of 

 flying-time, was from fifteen to twenty wigeon, and the greatest 

 number in a week, sixty birds. Other species of ducks were 

 sometimes killed, and more particularly scaups, of which, when 

 very abundant in the bay, hundreds have, late in the season, 

 after Christmas, been seen in a flock at flying-time. On the first 

 occasion that they were thus observed by a shooter of my 

 acquaintance, he was so alarmed at the tempestuous rushing 

 sound they made, as to be incapable of shooting, else he might 

 have brought down a dozen at a shot. Pochards, too, and tufted 

 ducks were sometimes obtained from the "barrels/' once, only, 

 am I aware of a wild goose being brought down from them, on 

 Mhich occasion three of the wliite-fronted species flew within 

 range, and one was killed. Wigeon, after feeding during the 

 night, or part of it, on the banks, are in the habit of fl}ing at 

 earHest dawn to the water to wash themselves, and at such times, 

 when there was not light enough for the shooter to see them, the 

 flapping of their wings has from a distance attracted him to the spot. 

 Another place and time of shooting, is on some promontory 

 or embankment jutting out into the bay, over wdiich the wigeon 

 fly on moonlight nights, when the rising tide puts them off their 

 feeding-ground, and they resort to a part of the estuary where 

 the water has not yet risen sufficiently to prevent their feeding, 

 or betake themselves to some inland locahties. At these times, 

 the shooter, by hearing, perhaps at a distance, the most pleasing 

 loud and lively notes of the males {tvJiee-o-ing , their clear and 

 quickly-uttered whistle is here called^) where they are con- 



* Thf softly guttural, or purriit//, notes of the female are inaudible from a 

 distance. 



