96 The Natural History of British Ducks 
' tipping ' up to reach their food when they espied the shellfish, and some 
which I killed were quite as uneatable as the Wigeon frequenting the same 
ground. 
In America and India the fresh-water lagoons are sufficiently large to 
afford a refuge by day to the Pintail, and as their margins contain an 
abundance of small water-plants and wild rice, which are a favourite food, 
there is no necessity for the duck to seek the security of the sea. I have 
frequently noticed that Pintail, and Mallard too, sometimes, when extremely 
frightened, 'lose their heads' as they rise, and if suddenly disturbed will crowd 
together in a confused mass in the air, some flying one way some another ; 
but this is rather the exception amongst either surface-feeding or diving 
ducks. They at once determine on their line, and rise together head to wind, 
and thus avoid clashing. Of this confusion the swamp-gunners of America 
take advantage, in the autumn, when great flocks of Pintail crowd the reed- 
beds of such favoured marshes as are to be found in the Kamkakee, Calumet, 
and Lower Mississippi : they endeavour to surprise the flocks, and kill 
numbers as they rise by a ' family shot.' 
In the breeding stations of northern Europe, where man never molests 
them, the Pintail, the drakes especially, are just as shy as in the winter-time. 
In Iceland I found no small difficulty in procuring a specimen or two in the 
eclipse plumage, whilst Barrow's Golden Eye, Scaup, and Long-tailed Ducks 
would hardly move out of the way, and could even be caught with the assist- 
ance of a fly-rod, and neither Teal, Wigeon, nor Mallard were what we should 
call wild. The Pintail, on the contrary, seemed to maintain their inherent fear 
of man, and could be seen making off as soon as they caught sight of the 
intruder. Even in confinement where many species are kept, they are the last 
to become tame, and if the owner or whoever feeds them ceases to go near 
the pond for a few days, they seem to resume at once the instinctive fears of 
the wild state. Teal are difficult to tame, but with patience they will come 
right up to the feeder ; whereas Pintail — which I have now kept for some 
