Common Pochard 27 
when they leave the estuaries or large lakes, and pass out to feed on smaller sheets of water 
at dusk. I was once waiting at a point on the Island of Mugdrum, Tay estuary, when, 
hearing a rush of wings, I looked up, and had just time to snap two barrels into a flock 
of duck that passed on my left ; the result was six Pochards down, but I lost two in 
the darkness. If it is desired to shoot Pochards on a small lake, it is much better to 
drive them off it, and station the gun or guns away from the water, as this form of 
shooting does not seem to terrify them nearly so much as stalking them from the 
shore. They are not more or less difficult to kill than other diving ducks, but require 
to be hit well forward, as winged birds may give much trouble. 
On large sheets of water they seem only to be shy when accompanied by other 
species, such as Scaup and Golden-Eyes, or Coots. Any of the latter, which are always 
more or less suspicious of danger, rising in their vicinity will disturb Pochards and 
make them wild. Golden-Eyes are in fact the veritable bugbear of the punt shooter, 
and ruin two-thirds of the chances offered, in Scotland at any rate. I have watched 
the punt and shoulder gunners attacking the immense flocks of American Pochards 
on the St. Lawrence, between Quebec and Rimouski, in November, and have noticed 
that the flocks, which often number many thousands, never travel very far after being 
fired at. This is probably due to the absence of other species, as well as to the fact 
that the birds had just arrived. When the weather is still the noise of a flock, often 
of thousands, rising is like the sound of big breakers crashing on a rocky coast. I 
have also seen vast numbers of American Pochard on the brackish lakes between Winnipeg 
and Calgary. Local gunners consider it a poor morning when they cannot shoot at flight 
50 to 100 of these ducks. In that duck paradise, the shores of Chesapeake Bay, the 
" Red-head," as the American Pochard is always called, come in vast numbers in 
November, and feed on the wild celery, which gives to their flesh a flavour only 
second in excellence to the renowned Canvas-back. Great numbers are killed here for 
market by means of decoys, reflectors, and sink-boats. 
When the ice forms in the far north enormous flocks of Red-heads take up a 
temporary residence in the St. Lawrence, and the smaller lakes that drain into the Great 
Lakes, and the larger western rivers. They avoid New England, and gradually descend 
in tens of thousands to that great duck paradise, the Chesapeake shores, and the lagoons 
of the Western States, where they pass the winter. Here they feed on the wild celery 
or Vallis7uria, and so gain a peculiar delicacy of their flesh. In regions where the eel-grass 
does not grow — as in California for example — the Red-heads live on fish, lizards, tadpoles, 
and coarse aquatic plants, and in consequence are uneatable, whereas in the Mississippi 
Valley and the Chesapeake, where the wild celery is abundant, gunners kill thousands 
to meet the demand. 
When they first arrive, Red-heads, flying in a compact body along the coast, make 
a noise like thunder or breaking waves, as their strong wings beat the air in unison. 
When they alight on the water above their feeding-grounds they are very restless and 
alert, constantly wheeling about in the air to reconnoitre before settling down. If decoyed 
to the coast or reed lines at daybreak by gunners screened behind blinds," or "tolled" 
(called) within range, the flock, after being fired at, quickly retreat to open waters. 
Myriads of Red-heads are also found in Minnesota, Dakota, and Montana in the 
