232 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



but I have since seen it yearly on that loch. Not more 

 than one to three birds were seen in any one day, except on 

 the occasion after mentioned. Sometimes the birds were 

 on the loch on our arrival in the morning. On other occa- 

 sions they came on during the day, singly as a rule, and 

 almost always ducks. Scarcely a drake was to be seen at 

 that time of the year. But on 6th May 1889 (in which 

 year the loch was visited twice) four drakes and three ducks 

 rose from the loch on our arrival early in the day, and flew 

 off in an easterly direction. A couple of ducks returned in 

 the afternoon, but remained only a few minutes. On i6th 

 June 1893 ducklings were observed by me among the reeds 

 at the south side of the loch, at a point which was inacces- 

 sible, so that the fact could not be verified by a capture. 

 These were the first ducklings seen by me. The duck on 

 that occasion displayed remarkable solicitude for her young, 

 repeatedly flying within thirty yards of where I stood. 



On the occasion of our visit to Ettrick in the end of the 

 third week of last June, our angling party had the pleasure 

 of the company of Mr. W. Eagle Clarke ; and it was 

 arranged to devote a day to a search for the nest or the 

 young. The search party, which consisted of Mr. Eagle 

 Clarke, Mr. Alexander Sturrock, and Mr. A. M. Milroy, 

 all of Edinburgh, and myself, visited four small but singu- 

 larly sequestered lochs in addition to the loch above referred 

 to. From the first of the four a couple of Mallard drakes 

 were flushed, but no Wigeon. The second held a Wigeon 

 drake and three ducks, one of which, from her actions, had 

 young. On the third loch and its outlet we found three 

 Wigeon ducks, each with a brood. We had an excellent 

 opportunity of observing the first brood, three in number, 

 from a distance of some ten yards, as they swam through 

 some long grass at the edge of the loch. During our 

 inspection one of the young birds was, I regret to say, taken 

 by what I assume, from the commotion in the water, to 

 have been a large pike, with which fish the loch abounds. 

 The remaining two broods were in the stream which forms 

 the outlet of the loch. From one of these broods a couple 

 of birds were secured. We were unable to ascertain the 

 number of birds in these broods, as the young at once con- 



