a duck, the third remove from a wild one, which had been carried in a basket from the Falls, two miles from Belfast, to his house in town. Its wing was either pulled or cut, on being turned into his town-yard, where it was kept for four or five weeks. He then sent it to my residence in Malone, two miles from Belfast in a different direction. It remained there, frequenting a pond in my garden, for about three weeks, when it disappeared. On going to Belfast, I found, by Mr. Sinclaire, that it had gone home to his dam whence it had been brought."*

Wild ducks rarely collect into dense flocks, like brent geese or wigeon; they are more scattered, and hence do not offer such tempting shots. They-and teal also-differ from those birds and from other wild-fowl by suddenly bounding from the water right into the air, without giving any warning to the shooter; whereas, the others swim a little off, or give some indication that they are about to rise. They continue numerous as ever-at least, as for forty years past-in Belfast Bay, visiting it chiefly at night, though brent geese, wigeon, and teal have become much diminished. In Dublin, too, I learned, in December 1849, that they are as abundant as ever in the decoys, &c., whence the market of that city is supplied. They are very highly esteemed for the table. In Belfast, the shooters usually get from 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d. each for them, from the dealers, which is twice as much as they do for pochards or scaup ducks.

In Belfast, the common species of Anatida are generally preferred as food in the following order :-Wild duck, teal, wigeon, brent goose, pochard; the scaup is not very saleable-the tufted duck and golden-eye still less so.† The pintail, of which very few are obtained, is considered of equal value with the wigeon; and the shoveller, still more rare, does not yield to any species in the fine flavour of its flesh.

* Aug. 3, 1810.-This was communicated to Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield, for her 'Anecdotes of Animals.'

I have known the golden-eye brought to table at the end of March, when, though not too long kept, its smell was so strong and disagreeable, that it had to be sent out of the room.

The food contained in wild ducks, killed in the north of Ireland, and examined by me, was almost invariably, in mild weather, of a vegetable nature. In addition to this, the birds procured during frost in Belfast Bay included, or sometimes were exclusively filled with, minute shells, of several species, but especially the Rissoa ulva. Of two shot here (February 1848), just after arrival from fresh water one had in its bill a horse-leech (Hirudo sanguisuga)-the other ejected several of them. The stomach. of an omnivorous mallard, killed at Larne Lough in October 1848, and brought to me by Mr. Darragh, curator and taxidermist to the Belfast Museum, contained the following:-An eel, four inches in length; a crab (Carcinas menas), an inch broad across the carapace, or shell, and perfect; of marine univalve and bivalve shell-fish, 1 Lacuna quadrifasciata, 2 Rissoa interrupta, 4 Rissoa albella?, 5 Modiola discrepans (fry), about 20 of the young of Littorina vulgaris and L. retusa, 40 Montacuta (Mya) purpurea, 391 Bulla obtusa, and 475 Rissoa alba: it contained also above 4,500 of the handsomely sculptured seeds of the grasswrack, Zostera marina; nor was this all, as fully one-tenth of the matter that which adhered to the coats of the stomach-was not taken into account.

Montagu, in the Supplement to his 'Ornithological Dictionary,' remarks, under "Cuckow," that :-"There are some insects and worms that appear to be rejected by most birds. The thrush most greedily devours the limax of the Helix nemoralis, but will not eat a naked limax; this is left for the duck, which is almost the only bird that will swallow this slimy morsel." But, the Hon, and Rev. William Herbert, in one of his many interesting notes to White's 'Selborne,'* observes :-"I have in vain flattered myself that ducks would deliver the garden from this nuisance [slugs], and have never found that they would touch them." In the north of Ireland tame ducks eat slugs most greedily, and are commonly turned into gardens for the purpose of destroying them. I have, myself, very frequently observed

* Bennett's edition, p. 443.

them so engaged in various places. The Curator of the Royal Botanic Garden, Belfast, informs me that they eat of them so voraciously there as to become surfeited, and to be obliged to sit down and rest, apparently sick from being overgorged. Another observant person has often known ducks to be "all but choked" from the quantity of slugs they had eaten, so that their owners, believing them to be at the point of death, killed them, that the birds might not be lost as food. Limax agrestis, the chief destroyer of the vegetation of the garden, &c., is their chief prey. So well is their feeding on slugs established here, that there are some persons who refuse to eat of these birds on account of the foul diet (as they consider) on which they have fattened.

When proceeding from Utrecht to Gorcum, on the 2nd June, 1826, I was surprised to observe among the reeds, in the wild fens, numerous long narrow hampers, like those used in the north of Ireland to pack potatoes in for exportation, and, on inquiry, learned that they were placed there for wild ducks to breed in, so that the young brood might be secured before they were able to fly.

If

This species is fully as plentiful in Ireland as in England. the observations of Sir William Jardine* and Mr. Macgillivray, respecting the numbers seen in winter, apply to Scotland, the wild duck is more abundant during that season in Ireland than it is there. One eloquent paragraph from Wilson must be here given. He remarks:-"This is the original stock of the common domesticated duck, reclaimed, time immemorial, from a state of nature, and now become so serviceable to man. In many individuals, the general garb of the tame drake seems to have undergone little or no alteration; but the stamp of slavery is strongly imprinted in his dull indifferent eye and grovelling gait, while the lofty look, long tapering neck, and sprightly action of the former, bespeak his native spirit and independence."+

* British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 109.

Amer. Ornit.,' vol. iii. p. 141. Jardine's edit.

THE GADWALL.

Anas strepera, Linn.

Is of rare occurrence in Ireland.

THE first individual recorded* is one which I saw in March 1833, in the collection of Dr. R. Graves of Dublin, who informed me that it was shot at Wexford, and sent to him thence in a recent state, in the winter just then past. When in Dublin in May 1838, I was told by Mr. Glennon that two gadwalls, which were brought to him, had been shot on the coast of Malahide a few miles distant on the 24th of January preceding, and that, early in the month of March, a bird of this species was sent to him for preservation by Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., of Knockdrin Castle, Westmeath. I subsequently learned from this gentleman that the specimen was shot at that inland locality. Mr. W. S. Wall (bird-preserver) received a young male, killed in the same winter at Baldoyle, and purchased another (a female) in the market of the metropolis:-it will be recollected that the winter of 1837-38 was particularly productive of the Anatide.

In a paper read before the Dublin Natural History Society on the 4th of December 1840, Mr. H. H. Dombrain mentioned his having procured a fine male gadwall, which had been shot at Malahide in the preceding week. Male and female specimens, presented to that society in 1841 or 1842, by Mr. Massey, of the Pigeon-house Fort, are believed to have been obtained in the Bay of Dublin. I have seen a bird of this species in the collection of Mr. J. Watters, jun., of that city, by whom I am assured that he saw two fresh specimens, male and female, in the market there on the 8th of December, 1816, and an immature bird about the 18th of that month in 1849; also, that he has seen at least one on sale by wild-fowl dealers in the course of every winter for some years past: all of which were killed in Ireland.†

*Proceedings Zool. Soc. 1834, p. 30.

This singularly agrees with what is said of the gadwall in the cast of England. The Rev. Mr. Lubbock informs us that "is generally to be seen in Norwich market once or twice in the winter."- Fauna of Norfolk,' p. 119.

A young male gadwall was shot in Beaulieu pond, near Drogheda, on the 5th of March, 1849, by R. J. Montgomery, Esq., a week before which time there was a gale from the east, and, immediately afterwards, another gale from that quarter, accompanied by snow. This bird is said to have emitted a very strong and peculiar odour, which was communicated to the hands of the person touching it, and was equally strong from the time that it was picked up until sent to be preserved two days afterwards. The same gentleman sent a female or young male from Drogheda to Dublin to be preserved, on the 21st of January, 1850.* A young male was shot about the 3rd of this month in a bog near Blarney, county of Cork.†

A male gadwall, partially exhibiting adult plumage, was shot by Mr. Francis Rankin in a snipe bog, nearly a quarter of a mile from the sea, in the Ards, near Kirkcubbin, county Down, about Christmas 1847. Only the one appeared; it was liberally presented by that gentleman to the Belfast Museum.

The gadwall is considered a rare bird in England, and is not positively known to Sir William Jardine or Mr. Macgillivray to have occurred in Scotland, but, at Sanday, one of the Orkney Islands, it was lately stated that a gadwall occasionally appears. The British Islands, generally, lie too far west to be much visited by the species.

THE PINTAIL.

Anas acuta, Linn.

Is a regular winter visitant, in small numbers, to our coast and inland waters.

Belfast Bay-Some two or three of these birds are almost sure to be obtained here every month of September.§ The earliest

* I have since learned that this bird was killed at the inland locality of Elphin, county Roscommon.

† Dr. J. R. Harvey.

Hist. Nat. Orcad. p. 75.

§ From Lough Foyle, county of Londonderry, I have likewise seen them in September, and occasionally during the winter.