known to me were a couple shot on the 2nd of that month, in 1842. Adult as well as young birds are killed at this season; and of the former there seems, relatively to the immature, a larger proportion than in any other species of the Anatida. From the circumstance of pintails being chiefly shot in the latter half of the month of September, and early in October, I have been disposed to consider them on migration, in little families; five, six, or seven birds being the most that are usually seen together. On the 7th October, 1844, six of them and a wild duck were killed at a shot from a swivel-gun ;--the whole flock annihilated at one fell swoop. After this time, chiefly single birds, and these rarely, are killed;—generally in company with wigeon. The name commonly applied to them by the wild-fowl shooters is pintail wigeon. Severe weather seems to have no effect in increasing their numbers. The latest period at which I have known them here was the 3rd of April (1848). The food contained in the stomachs of three individuals from this locality, killed in January and February of different years, was:—In the first, portions of Zostera marina; in the second and third, the remains of soft vegetable matter, with the addition, in one, of a few of the small univalve shell, Rissoa ulva; in both were fraggments of stone, and, in the third, sand. Seeds and other vegetable food were found in a bird killed on fresh water, at Lough Neagh. The pintail is considered a very good bird for the table.

Audubon remarks, that the pintail is "scarcely nocturnal." I once knew it to be shot on wing at the evening "flying-time" of wild-fowl, at "the bog-meadows," Belfast. A couple were killed by Sir Wm. Jardine, feeding at dusk in some wet stubble in company with mallard and teal.

The pintail is pretty generally-though very sparingly in numbers-distributed over the fresh-water lakes, large and small, of this island. From Lough Neagh, and its little adjunct, Lough Beg, it has been brought to me. About Tandragee (Armagh) it has been shot. A few were taken every winter in the decoy at Mountainstown, county Meath, the residence of the late Arthur

Pollock, Esq., and they can still be had at any time during that season, but more particularly in (and after) the month of January, from decoys, which supply Dublin market. Three or four couple are taken during the winter in the decoy at Caledon. On Lough Derg, on the river Shannon, near Portumna, about five or six are generally killed every season. Daniel, in his Rural Sports,' tells us that, in the month of February only, these birds are found in great abundance in Connaught ;* but in that finely watered province they are, instead, met with frequently throughout the entire season.

The author of The Wild Sports of the West' remarks, "When winter is coming on, the pintail was noticed in the estuary." To the bays of Kerry this bird is a regular winter visitant, and has been noticed in the market of Tralee at the end of October and first two weeks of November (1848).† In the harbours, &c., of the southern line of coast comprising those of the counties Cork, Waterford and Wexford-in which last it is called harlan—as well as those on the other three sides of the island, the pintail annually appears, and it seems to be in about equal numbers from north to south; sparing as these are, they have not diminished of late years like those of various other species.

In Dublin, this bird bears the name of lady-duck; owing, we may presume, to its graceful and elegant appearance; it was particularly numerous in the market there in the great Anatida winter of 1837-38. On the coast at Malahide, they occurred in large flocks, in the winter of 1849-50.‡

A couple of male birds (young of the year), slightly wounded in the wing, were purchased for the pond at the Falls, where they frequently came under my notice.

One of them lived for thirteen years, when it was killed by a mischievous boy; the other had been previously given away. They were very mild in disposition, and became at once quite A female bird was introduced soon after the males, and one of them associated with her. They seemed duly paired,

tame.

* Vol. iii. p. 273.

† Mr. R. Chute.

Mr. R. J. Montgomery.

and "the season of courtship" was indicated, as described by Montagu, in the supplement to his 'Ornithological Dictionary ;' but no eggs were produced. Their ordinary call-note is a peculiar brief whistle, somewhat resembling that of the teal. The shooters state that the cry of the pintail, when wounded and pursued, is like that of the mallard, or duck, though more weak, and that they quack much at such times.

The pintail seems to be about equally common in Ireland as in England, and more so in both countries than in Scotland. In "the western islands and northern coasts" of the last-named country the long-tailed duck is believed by Mr. Selby to have been mistaken for it by those who have recorded the frequency of the species. Mr. Macgillivray remarks, that this bird is not met with in the northern islands; but in the most recent work upon them it has been noticed as a winter visitant to Orkney;t-in Sutherlandshire, likewise, it is said to be so, and is enumerated among the wild-fowl frequenting the lochs of Spynie, &c., Morayshire, in March. I

Wilson (vol. iii. p. 95) and Audubon (vol. iii. p. 214) both speak of the pintail as seldom frequenting the sea-coast of America, and consider it rather an inhabitant of fresh-water: the latter author gives a full and interesting account of its habits. § A friend, writing from Belvoir Cottage, West Hoboken (New Jersey), in March 1850, inquires, "Why is the pintail omitted, as a species of this continent, in the Prince of Canino's 'Comparative Catalogue of the Birds of Europe and North America' ?” He adds, "It is quite common here, and always to be seen, during the season, in New York market." In Wilson's 'American Ornithology,' it is stated to be common, which leads to the inference that the omission alluded to was accidental.

* Manual Brit. Birds,' vol. ii. p. 170 (1846).

Hist. Nat. Orcad.,' p. 76 (1848).

St. John's Tour in Sutherlandshire,' vol. i. pp. 139 and 195.

§ Wilson erroneously remarks, that "great flocks of them are sometimes spread along the isles and shores of Scotland and Ireland, and on the interior lakes of both these countries."

THE BIMACULATED DUCK, OR TEAL (Anas bimaculata, Penn.; Anas glocitans, Gmel.), unknown in Ireland, has on three occasions, from 1771 to the present period, been procured in England, on one of which, two individuals were captured in a decoy at the same time. In the third instance, the bird was merely purchased in the London market, and no information given where it was killed. The bimaculated duck has not been obtained on the mainland of Scotland, but is believed to have 'been twice observed in Orkney." It inhabits Northern Asia, but is very little known to ornithologists.

Is of very rare occurrence in Ireland.

I HAVE, myself, seen but one specimen of this very handsomely marked duck properly authenticated as killed in this island; it is an adult male, which was shot about the month of April 1841, at Edenderry, King's-county, and is in the collection of Dr. C. Farran, of Dublin. Mr. Glemon, bird-preserver, of this city, told me in May 1838, of a fresh specimen having been sent to him in the winter of 1835-36, by Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., at whose seat, in Westmeath, it was said to have been shot. An adult male bird, which I saw in Glennon's in August 1843, was stated to have been received in a fresh state, but where obtained was unknown. Mr. R. Ball has observed a very few fresh specimens (which it may be fairly presumed were killed in Ireland) on sale in Dublin, but is not aware where they were procured. Dr. Harvey, of Cork, has seen one individual (an adult male) which was killed in that county. On the first three days of March 1847, Richard Flack, a wild-fowl shooter, to whom the garganey is well known, saw one of these birds, and, as was presumed, the same individual each day, on Strangford Lough. It admitted

* Hist. Nat. Orcad.,' p. 76 (1848).

of a very close approach, and seemed to have no apprehension of danger; but its observer, being in every instance in pursuit of large flocks of wild-fowl, was unwilling to lose his chance of a shot at them, by firing at a single bird, although that was a garganey. His description of the markings on the head, &c., showed it to have been an adult male. In Tighe's 'Kilkenny,' the following observation is made :-" Anas querquedula, a bird which goes by various English names, as garganey, easterling, lady-fowl, and on the Nore is sometimes very improperly called diver, and even wigeon, appears in winter, sometimes in small flocks, sometimes alone; the female, which is nearly brown, without any of the beautiful plumage of the male, is described by Ray under the name of Phascas," p. 156. It is difficult to know what species is meant in this extract, which I have thought proper to give, lest I be accused of having passed over information on the subject of the bird under consideration. Certainly the first two names used pertain to it; but "easterling" is applied both to the smew (Montagu) and wigeon (Yarrell); the pintail is often called "lady-fowl" in Dublin and the south of Ireland; and Ray's "Phascas" is the wigeon.

A few pair of the garganey have been known to breed in Norfolk, but it is considered a rare bird in England, and is regarded by Mr. Selby and Sir William Jardine as visiting that country at "the period of its migratory flight towards its summer or breeding quarters." These range so far north as Sweden, although the species breeds in the countries of southern as well as of central Europe. The latter author considers that "the southern half of England is the boundary of its northern range, except in accidental instances." One record only of this bird's occurrence in Scotland-when six were killed in Stirlingshire, in March 1841 -appears in his work and that of Macgillivray. It is subsequently stated to have been met with in the Orkney Islands.†

* Mr. Knox informs us that immature birds are not unusual in the winter on the coast of Sussex, but adult specimens, particularly males, are rare (p. 237).

Hist. Nat. Orcad.' p. 77.