THE WILD DUCK. 
77 
They are not, however, so easily obtained as might be imagined, 
owing to their diving and concealing themselves among the dense 
aquatic herbage. About the wild lakes of Donegal and Connaught 
I have often come unawares upon wild ducks in their breeding- 
haunts. It is unnecessary to specify localities, of which there 
are some in every county in the island. Mr. E. Davis, jun., 
observes (1842) that “ Wild ducks seem to admire thick furze- 
covers as nesting-places. A fox-cover near Clonmel is frequently 
resorted to for this purpose. They sometimes build on the tops 
of old walls covered with herbage — brambles, &c." 
The first time I rode through the finely wooded and watered 
Shane's Castle Park, on the borders of Lough Neagh, in the 
month of January, now many years ago, I, with surprise, remarked 
that of the immense numbers of these birds which arose into the 
air, a duck and drake almost invariably sprang together, or soon 
joined in flight, thus giving indication of their being already 
paired. In the month of December, too, I think that I have 
observed them paired in that park, but have no positive note 
on the subject. In the autumn, also, when they frequently 
betake themselves in the evening to the corn-fields in the 
neighbourhoood of Lough Neagh to feed, they are said com- 
monly to fly in pairs.* Mr. Waterton has since, in his 
f Essays on Natural History/ 1 given as his opinion “ that the 
old birds remain in pairs through the entire year, and that the 
young ones which had been hatched in the preceding spring 
choose their mates long before they depart for the Arctic regions 
in the following year." An observation similar to the above has 
been made on the other side of the Atlantic. Audubon observes : 
— “ The mallards that remain with us during the whole year, and 
breed on the banks of the Mississippi, or Lake Michigan, or in the 
beautiful meadows that here and there border the Schuylkil in 
Pennsylvania, begin to pair in the very heart of winter." J This 
author gives a full and interesting history of the mallard, but to 
* On such occasions they are shot by fowlers, who not only conceal themselves 
behind the fences, but within the stooks of corn. 
f Vol. i. p. 200, 3rd edition. t Vol. iii. p. (57. 
