314 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap, xxxv 



About the second week in July the young wild ducks begin 

 to fly. Those hatched high up in the country usually make 

 their way down to the sea-side in that month. They follow 

 the course of some stream or river till they arrive at their desti- 

 nation. Like the fable of the ostrich hiding her head when 

 pursued, the young wild ducks when chased on the river will fre- 

 quently dip their heads under the water, and keeping them there 

 till they are nearly drowned, fancy themselves secure, although 

 their whole body is exposed. If taken up, and put into some 

 enclosed yard or garden, they will soon become tolerably tame, 

 and get very fat if well fed. The whole of my poultry-yard 

 (as far as ducks are concerned) is supplied by a breed of half- 

 wild and half-tame ducks, originating in some young drakes 

 caught, and turned out with the tame ducks — the tame drakes 

 being all sent away, in order to ensure the proper cross in the 

 breed. The birds are very much improved for the table by this 

 cross, and are quite as tame as the common domestic duck, 

 only showing their wild parentage in an inclination to hide 

 their nests, and to build at a distance from home — always, 

 however, if allowed so to do, bringing home their broods as 

 soon as they are hatched. At other seasons they never seem 

 inclined to wander, though they are always to be seen at the 

 very earliest dawn of the morning, before it is quite light, spread 

 out over the grass-field adjoining the house, hunting it in a 

 regular line of advance for worms and snails. As the evening 

 comes on, too, it is amusing to see them bent on the same pur- 

 suit, and displaying the greatest activity and skill in catching 

 the large evening moths, as these insects rise from the grass or 

 fly low over it 



