THE WILD DUCK. 1Q7 



Remarks by a celebrated author. 



where the sound is reflected as in a musical in- 

 strument, and is heard a great way off. To this 

 call all the stragglers resort ; and in a week or a 

 fortnight's time, a lake that was before quite 

 naked, is black with water- fowl, that have left 

 their Lapland retreats to keep company with our 

 ducks who never stirred from home. 



" They generally," observes a celebrated au- 

 thor, " choose that part of the lake where they 

 are inaccessible to the approach of the fowler, 

 in which they all appear huddled together, ex- 

 tremely busy and very loud. What it is can 

 employ them all the clay is not easy to guess. 

 There is no food for them at the place where 

 they sit and cabal thus, as they choose the mid- 

 dle of the lake; and as for courtship, the season 

 for that is not yet come ; so that it is wonderful 

 what can so busily keep them occupied. Not 

 one of them seems a moment at rest. Now pur- 

 suing one another, now screaming, then all up 

 at once, then down again; the whole seems one 

 strange scene of bustle with nothing to do. 



" They frequently go off in a more private 

 manner by night to feed in the adjacent mea- 

 dows and ditches, which they dare not venture 

 to approach by day. In these nocturnal adven- 

 tures they are often taken; for though a timor- 

 ous bird, yet they are easily deceived, and every 

 spring seems to succeed in taking them. But 

 the greatest quantities are taken in decoys; 

 which, though well known near London arp yet 



