XVI WILD-FOWL SHOOTING H7 



note of their different habits and ways of getting their 

 living. 



No rule can be laid down for wild-fowl shooting ; what suc- 

 ceeds in one place fails in another. The best plan, in whatever 

 district the sportsman is located, is to take note where the birds 

 feed, where they rest in the daytime, and where they take shelter 

 in heavy winds. By observing these different things, it is always 

 easy enough to procure a few wild ducks. On the coast, the 

 birds charige- their locality with the ebb and flow of the tide, 

 generally feeding with the ebb, and resting with the flow. I 

 believe that about the best wild-fowl shooting in the kingdom 

 is in the Cromarty Firth, where thousands of birds of every 

 variety pass the winter, feeding on the long sea-grass, and pass- 

 ing backwards and forwards constantly at every turn of the tide. 

 I have here often killed wild ducks by moonlight. It is an in- 

 teresting walk in the bright clear winter nights, to go round by 

 the shore, listening to the various calls of the birds, the constant 

 quack of the mallard, the shrill whistle of the widgeon, the low 

 croaking note of the teal, and the fine bugle voice of the wild 

 swan, varied every now and then by the loud whistling of a 

 startled curlew, or oyster-catcher. The mallard and teal are 

 the only exclusively night-feeding birds ; the others feed at any 

 time of the night or day, being dependent on the state of the 

 tide to get at the banks of grass and weed, or the sands where 

 they find shell-fish. All ducks are quite as wary in the bright 

 moonlight as in the daytime, but at night are more likely to 

 be found near the shore. Between the sea and the land near 

 my abode is a long stretch of green embankment, which was 

 made some years back in order to reclaim from the sea a great 

 extent of land, which then consisted of swampy grass and herb- 

 age, overflowed at every high tide, but which now repays the 

 expense of erecting the embankments, by affording as fine a 

 district of corn-land as there is in the kingdom. By keeping 

 the landward side of this grass-wall, and looking over it with 

 great care, at different spots, I can frequently kill several brace 

 of ducks and widgeon in an evening ; though, without a clever 

 retriever, the winged birds must invariably escape. Guided by 

 their quacking, I have also often killed wild ducks at springs 

 and running streams on frosty nights. It is perfectly easy to 

 distinguish the birds as they swim about on a calm moonlight 



