. Bird-life of the borders, records of wild sport and natural history on moorland and sea. Birds -- Great Britain. THE GAME-DUCKS. 177 arrivals of both species keep occurring till the end of October, by which period the fall complement of their winter num- bers is made up. In my opinion the whole, or, at any rate, the vast majority, of our sea-coast Mallards are foreigners. A few broods of native Mallards from the sand-links or immediate vicinity of the coast-line may perhaps join the foreign legions on their arrival here, but that is all. The inland, native-bred Mal- lards are extremely seden
. Bird-life of the borders, records of wild sport and natural history on moorland and sea. Birds -- Great Britain. THE GAME-DUCKS. 177 arrivals of both species keep occurring till the end of October, by which period the fall complement of their winter num- bers is made up. In my opinion the whole, or, at any rate, the vast majority, of our sea-coast Mallards are foreigners. A few broods of native Mallards from the sand-links or immediate vicinity of the coast-line may perhaps join the foreign legions on their arrival here, but that is all. The inland, native-bred Mal- lards are extremely sedentary birds, and remain constantly, all the year round, in the neighbourhood of the moors and marshes where they were bred. These birds never, of their own choice, come down to the coast, or to the tidal WIGEON ON THE " SLAKE "HARD FROST. In very severe weather, when their regular haunts are all frozen or snowed up, they are obliged to have recourse to the open waters of the coast, but on the break-up of the frost at once return (within a few hours) to their inland home. The return migration northwards takes place in March As early as the end of February, in mild seasons, we have evidence of the commencement of the great migratory move- ment, and its concluding stages are still perceptible in April, and even sometimes into May. But March is the month when the withdrawal of these ducks is in full operation, and, in average seasons, the groat bulk of them leave our coasts during its concluding week. Wigeon, on their first arrival, about mid-September, and N. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Chapman, Abel, 1851-1929. London : Gurney and Jackson
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1889
