Long-tailed Duck 123 
the Long-tailed Duck keeps the body very low in the water, often with the tail out of 
sight and water washing over the nape. It is a very "busy" duck when searching for 
food, and keeps on diving with few rests. On the Baltic, when forced to resort to deeper 
waters owing to the ice blockade, they can obtain food at a depth of 30 feet, but this 
has a serious effect on their condition and they soon become thin, whilst Blasius {Neuer 
Naumann) says it has been proved that they can dive to a depth of 14 metres, but 
they seem incapable of reaching to such depths as the Scaup, the Eider, and the Velvet 
Scoter, which can obtain food at a depth of 20 metres and are not distressed in so doing. 
Provided there are no severe north or north-easterly winds in the latter part of March, 
the Long-tailed Ducks assemble in large flocks and migrate north to the breeding grounds. 
A few warm days is sufficient to make them very noisy and restless, and in two or three 
nights they are gone. It has been my good fortune in the springs of 1885 and 1886 to find 
the flocks of these birds blocked by northerly winds, which in 1886 continued to the end of 
the second week in April, and to observe the gradual advent of the summer plumage until in 
some cases it was quite complete, and to witness the courtship of these beautiful birds. If 
the Long- tailed Duck is " merry and bright " in winter, it is doubly so in the spring, when 
all the fire and romance of sexual instinct is aroused. There is no sight more charming to 
the naturalist than an Orcadian bay in spring. From the vivid green of the hills come the 
wail of the Golden Plover, the cheery calls of the cock Grouse, and the monotonous " Pee- 
wits " of the Lapwings. On the golden green foreshores the Redshanks and Ring Plovers 
are making gentle love in plaintive tones, and the Oyster-catchers are yelling defiance to all 
and sundry. Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backs keep up a chorus of yelping cries of joy, 
whilst a pair of Great Black-backed Gulls occupy some prominent headland and utter an 
occasional "Wau." The bay itself is gay with moving life in the shape of Red-breasted 
Mergansers, Puffins, Guillemots, Black Guillemots, Shags, and Cormorants, flying or diving 
in search of food, and above all rises the musical notes of the cock Long-tails, who are to be 
seen in various stages of changing plumage, rushing, flying, quarrelling, or massing in extra- 
vagant postures round some favoured female. It is a gay and beautiful scene, often so still 
that in spite of tides and sudden rises of wind I have more than once ventured to intrude 
my presence in the double-handed gunning-punt, so that I could achieve a greater intimacy 
than is allowed to the more ostentatious sailing-boat. None of these birds seem to have 
any fear of the punt except the Mergansers, and so the observer can get close to and watch 
all that is to be seen. The opportunities for observing the courtship of the Long-tailed 
Duck are, however, few in our islands, owing to the fact that these birds, so tame at other 
seasons, become extremely wild a day or two before they depart, and most of the flocks are 
unapproachable either by sailing-boat or gunning-punt. I have, however, been twice right 
amongst a courting flock and watched them closely. 
As previously stated, the actual courtship of the male is generally aroused and brought 
about by the sexual desire of the female, and amongst ducks the females are very irregular 
as to the time of their coming into season. Thus only one or perhaps two females in a 
large flock may be well advanced in their summer plumage and their breeding instincts, and 
these are the special objects of desire of all the males. I have noticed a bunch of eight or 
ten females swimming apart and not a male going near them, whilst ten or fifteen males 
will crowd round some particular female and lavish upon her all their arts of charm. The 
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