Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 13, 2025
As he came up he held a finger in the air to command silence, and with stooping body and quick alert way he paused till he was close to the boys, and then whispered: "You couldn't hev come better, lads; there's a boat load of 'em in the pond." "What sort?" whispered Dick excitedly. "All sorts, lad: widgeons, teal, mallards, and some pochards.
But this explanation will not fit other cases. What a multitude of wild ducks there are in Scotland and every other country, mallards, pintails, gadwalls, widgeons, pochards and teals, all very much alike in their habits and tastes!
These were the pochards, or, as they are termed by the gunners of the Chesapeake, `red-heads. These creatures bear a very great resemblance to the canvas-backs, and can hardly be distinguished except by their bills: those of the former being concave along the upper surface, while the bills of the canvas-backs exhibit a nearly straight line.
They saw that they were not all canvass-backs, but that three distinct kinds of ducks were feeding together. One sort was the canvass-backs themselves, and a second kind very much resembled them, except that they were a size smaller. These were the "red-heads" or "pochards." The third species was different from either.
One sort was the canvass-backs themselves, and a second kind very much resembled them, except that they were a size smaller. These were the "red-heads" or "pochards." The third species was different from either. They had also heads of a reddish colour, but of a brighter red, and marked by a white band that ran from the root of the bill over the crown.
I became differently occupied, and with a matter that soon drove canvas-backs, and widgeons, and pochards as clean out of my head as if no such creatures had ever existed. "While drifting through the sedge, my attention had several times been attracted by what appeared to be strange conduct on the part of my canine companion.
Floating on the surface of the deeper water, are fleets of the Anatidæ, the Coromandel teal , the Indian hooded gull , the Caspian tern, and a countless variety of ducks and smaller fowl pintails , teal , red-crested pochards , shovellers , and terns.
"Floating and rowing by turns, I soon came in sight of the bay and the wild celery fields, and also of flocks of water-fowl of different species, among which I could recognise the pochards, the canvas-backs, and the common American widgeon. "Seeking a convenient place near the mouth of the stream, I landed; and, tying the skiff to some weeds, proceeded in search of a cover.
Away to the left were a number of flat-looking squatty-shaped pochards with their brown heads and soft grey backs, while to the right were plenty of widgeons and another little flock of teal, those pretty miniature ducks, with here and there a rarer specimen, among which were pintails, drakes with the centre feathers of the tail produced like those of a parroquet.
"I saw that the pochards did not interfere with either of the other species, contenting themselves with feeding upon what neither of the others cared for the green leaves of the vallisneria, which, after being stripped of their roots, were floating in quantities on the surface of the water.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking