cHaP. Xv1. | WILD DUCKS. 129 
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. Al] 
ducks are quite as wary in the bright moonlight as in the day 
time, 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 herbage, 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 in frosty nights. It 
is perfectly easy to distinguish the birds as they swim about on a 
calm moonlight night, particularly if you can get the birds between 
you and the moon. It is a great assistance in night shooting to 
paste a piece of white paper along your gun-barrel, half-way down 
from the muzzle. In the stillness ofthe night the birds are pecu- 
liarly alive to sound, and the slightest noise sends them immediately 
out of shot. Their sense of smelling being also very acute, 
you must always keep to leeward of them. The mallard duck 
is more wary than any other kind in these respects, rising imme- 
diately with loud cries of warning, and putting all the other 
birds within hearing on the alert. I have seen the wild swans 
at night swim with a low cheeping note close by me; their white 
colour, however, makes them more difficult to distinguish than 
any other bird. It is quite easy to shoot ducks flying by moon- 
light, as long as you can get them between you and the clear 
sky. Practice, however, is required to enable the shooter tu judge 
of distance at night time. 
I have frequently caught and brought home young wild ducks. 
If contined in a yard, or elsewhere, for a week or two with tame 
birds, they strike up a companionship which keeps them from 
wandering when set at liberty. Some few years back I brought 
K 
