THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
rippling wave and half-breaking wash, had escaped the naked eye, though 
the females had been detected at once. 
It is, however, wrong to speak of them as “ black and white.” The 
main body-colour of the goosander-drake, especially the breast, is saffron- 
yellow. This superb adornment is very evanescent, fading away immedi- 
ately after death, and is never seen either in museum specimens or in 
coloured plates of the bird. I fancy that few naturalists have an idea of the 
fact, not having seen a freshly -killed example. Similarly the breast of a 
merganser-drake is a lovely rich salmon -pink, though usually described 
and depicted as white.* An analogous case is supplied by the eider-drake, 
whose upper wing -coverts in life are beautifully toned in lemon -yellow ; 
but which is utterly lost in dried skins, and never shown in plates, or 
mentioned in descriptions. 
Modes of diving . — ^The varied styles of diving in which sub -aquatic fowl 
take their plunge would form an interesting study ; yet is rarely alluded to. 
In “The Art of Wildfowling,” I instanced this divergent habit as a means 
of identifying birds seen at a distance. Undoubtedly, several species, 
such as, e.g.^ tufted ducks, pochards (both kinds), grebes, coots and 
shags, spring clean out of the water, taking a regular ” header,” with a 
momentary vision of wings half -opened. On calm, still, currentless 
waters, both scaup and golden -eye will do the same — but not on the 
tide. Thereupon the two last-named (and several more) simply drop 
their heads-— there is a flash of opening wings, of flying spray, and they 
are down. 
The precise style of diving, in short, varies in accordance with (a), the 
depth of water to be explored; (b), the strength of its current; and 
(c), when approached, by the degree of danger they may apprehend. With 
a gunning -punt close by, and levelled gun, there is obviously no time 
for ceremonious disappearance. 
The distinctive objects sought as food by different birds clearly in- 
fluence their individual methods. Thus the eiders, scoters, long -tailed 
ducks, guillemots, razorbills and all that class whose crustacean prey 
is more or less stationary, simply vanish from view at the precise spot 
whereat they sat — too quickly for human eye to see how. But those others 
that depend for their livelihood upon catching active Ashes, naturally 
try to obtain some slight clue, before diving, as to the exact situation of 
*The name “Red-breasted Merganser,” when originally bestowed, was surely based on this conspicuous coloration 
in life. Nowadays, naturalists seem to refer its origin to the speckled band on the lower neck: but that is brown, and 
not in any sense red. 
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