26 British Diving Ducks 
morning I took my gunning punt from Fort George, a distance of four miles, and, paddling 
to the birds just as the light came, I killed four out of the five males, all in fine eclipse 
plumage. Most of the females and young do not leave their home lakes until the middle 
of August, and I have killed young birds unable to fly on August 12th at Murthly Moss. 
The old females had usually left by that date. In September Pochards are on migration 
all over our islands, and do not form up into big flocks on the large lakes until the end 
of October. 
Although Pochards both young and old may sometimes be found in late August and 
September when on migration, I am convinced that not one-tenth of the birds that are 
bred in the British Islands are to be found anywhere in the vicinity of either their regular 
summer or winter haunts during this period. It has always been a puzzle to me where 
they go to from August 12th, when they desert the breeding lochs, till October 15th, 
when they begin to reassemble at their regular winter habitats. In Scotland, where they 
are common at nearly all other times, it is nearly impossible to find Pochards in September. 
Certainly they do not go to sea or to the large lakes of the vicinity, and the small numbers 
noticed on migration are usually single birds, or small parties, which in no degree represent 
the local stock that have bred. We can only infer that the main stock of birds passes away 
from our shores to other lands in the south and does not return till October. Commenting 
on this, Captain Brander Dunbar, a close student of ducks, writes to me: "It is a very 
curious fact that all Pochards disappear from the loch (Spynie) from the middle of August 
till the time of the winter flights. When fishing in July I often see a dozen good-sized 
broods, say 120 birds; these leave as soon as they can fly, about 12th August, but it 
is a mystery to me where they go to." 
Capture. — When found on small ponds Pochards are by no means shy, and will 
generally allow a gunner to walk within gunshot if simple precautions are taken, but 
it is a mistake to shoot these birds in such places if there is a desire on the part of 
the landowner to establish the species as a resident, for all ducks soon learn the spots 
where they are protected, and will not tolerate much molestation. If specimens are 
required, or the needs of the pot are pressing, it is much better to attack the birds on 
large sheets of water or on the estuaries, which they are not easily made to forsake. 
In the autumn these large flocks are easily approached by a small sailing-boat to within 
gunshot of an 8-bore, or even a full choke 12-bore, but if numbers are wanted the punt 
gun will do great execution in their serried ranks. I have seldom fired at Pochards on the 
sea, but one frosty morning in February 1891, when returning from an unsuccessful raid on 
the Wigeon in Castle-Stuart Bay, Moray Firth, I spied a small but dense flock of duck 
in Campbeltown Bay, not far from the village. These were about sixty Pochards driven 
to the sea by stress of weather from the various Nairnshire lochs. Knowing that they 
would be tame and had doubtless never seen a punt, I reserved fire until I was within 80 
yards, and cut a clear lane right through the flock, killing dead twenty birds, and afterwards 
recovering two winged ones. On the East Coast of Scotland such a shot with the big 
gun is rare, but I have seen occasions on Loch Leven (where Heaven forbid ! a punt-gun 
should ever be used) and the Loch of Strathbeg when a very much larger number of birds 
could easily have been killed. 
There are sometimes good opportunities of getting a shot at these ducks at flight, 
