126 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. | CHAP, XVI. 
CHAPTER XVI. 
Wild Ducks: Edible kinds of—Breeding-places of Mallards—Change of 
Plumage — Shooting — Feeding-places — Half-bred Wild Ducks—Anas 
glacialis—Anas clangula: Habits of—Teeth of Goosander—Cormorants 
—Anecdotes. 
A Few years ago I used to see a great many scaup ducks in the 
pools and burns near the coast, but now it is very seldom that 
I meet with a single bird of this kind; the last which I killed 
here was in the month of July. This is one of the few ducks 
frequenting the shore which has not a rank or fishy flavour: out 
of the numerous varieties of birds of the duck kind, I can 
only enumerate four that are really good eating, namely, the 
common mallard, the widgeon, the teal, and the scaup duck. 
The best of these is the mallard : with us, they breed principally 
about the most lonely lochs and pools in the hills; sometimes 
I have seen these birds during the breeding-season very far up 
among the hills: a few hatch and rear their young about the 
rough ground and mosses near the sea, but these get fewer and 
fewer every year, in consequence of the increase of draining and 
clearing which goes on in all the swamps and wild grounds. 
Some few breed in furze-bushes and quiet corners near the 
mouth of the river, and may be seen in some rushy pool, accom- 
panied by a brood of young ones. Though so wild a bird, they 
sit close, allowing people to pass very near to them without 
moving. When they leave their nest, the eggs are always care- 
fully concealed, so that a careless observer would never suppose 
that the heap of dried leaves and grass that he sees under a bush 
covers twelve or thirteen duck’s eggs. 
Occasionally a wild duck fixes on a most unlikely place to 
build her nest in; for instance, on a cleft of a rock, where you 
would rather expect to find a pigeon or jackdaw building, and I 
once, when fishing in a quiet brook in England, saw a wild duck 
fly out of an old pollard oak-tree. My curiosity being excited 
