TUFTED DUCK IN SOLWAY 223 



vegetation. She was only a Mallard. A peep at her nest 

 revealed the fact that she was sitting on nine eggs or, to 

 be quite correct, six eggs, for three had already hatched, 

 and the young were crouching meekly down in the inside of 

 their recently enveloping shells. On the other side of the 

 crannoge we found in another minute the Tufted Duck 

 slipping out through a narrow passage in the briars from a 

 nest which closer examination disclosed as containing ten 

 eggs, the last of which appeared to be newly laid. We 

 made our further stay as brief as possible, so as not to 

 interfere with the domestic cares of these two most interest- 

 ing avian households. 



One week later I paid a visit to Lochrutton, the centre 

 from which, so far as I know, this district has been colonised 

 by the Tufted Ducks. It was here I found them breeding 

 in 1887. The species has increased from the original one, 

 or perhaps two, pairs of ten years ago, till on my visit 

 referred to I counted, with the aid of the binoculars, upwards 

 of forty males upon the loch. Dotting the smooth surface 

 of the water at intervals all over the loch, hardly two of 

 them could be said to be in company. There can be little 

 doubt the great majority of these males had mates brooding 

 around the loch margins. So many of the species at that 

 period of the year was a sight to gladden the soul of any 

 ornithologist ; and, seen in the rays of the western sun on a 

 calm evening, with the light shining on their white breasts, the 

 spectacle could not but be gratifying to a lover of nature. 

 Satisfying as this sight was, I must still find out something 

 more. So, in company of a neighbouring farmer and his son, 

 we proceeded to search for nests. At the south end of the 

 loch are situated a good many acres of reeds and mud and 

 sedges interspersed with deep pools of water. Very little of 

 it is traversable by wading, and on most of it a boat is 

 impossible. Nevertheless, by some "engineering" un- 

 necessary to describe, we managed access to a little space 

 that might be considered a sort of island in the midst of the 

 reeds and sedges. It was covered with small willows, 

 coarse grasses, and a thick growth of long rushes. In size 

 it was not much bigger than an ordinary dining-table, and 

 so little above the surrounding water that some of the eggs 



