104 
ANATIDjE. 
that alarms them, even when in full or rapid flight, instantly 
throw themselves upwards with surprising quickness. On the 
occasions alluded to they sometimes fly singly, but more fre- 
quently in small flocks, so many as twenty rarely appearing in 
company; but, in frosty weather, from two to three hundred 
have been seen on wing together. The males often utter their 
whistling note during these flights. The most I have heard of 
being obtained by a barrel-shooter, during the brief period of 
flying-time, was from fifteen to twenty wigeon, and the greatest 
number in a week, sixty birds. Other species of ducks were 
sometimes killed, and more particularly scaups, of which, when 
very abundant in the bay, hundreds have, late in the season, 
after Christmas, been seen in a flock at flying-time. On the first 
occasion that they were thus observed by a shooter of my 
acquaintance, he was so alarmed at the tempestuous rushing 
sound they made, as to be incapable of shooting, else he might 
have brought down a dozen at a shot. Pochards, too, and tufted 
ducks were sometimes obtained from the “ barrels ” once, only, 
am I aware of a wild goose being brought down from them, on 
which occasion three of the white-fronted species flew within 
range, and one was killed. Wigeon, after feeding during the 
night, or part of it, on the banks, are in the habit of flying at 
earliest dawn to the water to wash themselves, and at such times, 
when there was not light enough for the shooter to see them, the 
flapping of their wings has from a distance attracted him to the spot. 
Another place and time of shooting, is on some promontory 
or embankment jutting out into the bay, over which the wigeon 
fly on moonlight nights, when the rising tide puts them off their 
feeding-ground, and they resort to a part of the estuary where 
the water has not yet risen sufficiently to prevent their feeding, 
or betake themselves to some inland localities. At these times, 
the shooter, by hearing, perhaps at a distance, the most pleasing 
loud and lively notes of the males ( whee-o-ing , their clear and 
quickly-uttered whistle is here called*) where they are con- 
* The softly guttural, or purring, notes of the female are inaudible from a 
distance. 
