SOME NOTES ON THE TUFTED DUCK 149 



wind. That was probably an earlier opinion conveyed to 

 Pennant, but modified by later experience" (in lit. 10.1 1.95). 



2. G. Don's record, published in 1813 in his list of 

 the Plants and Animals of Forfarshire, appended to Head- 

 rick's " View of the Agriculture " of the County. The entry is 

 as follows : " A nas fnligula ; tufted duck; in the lakes." 

 Unfortunately we are not told at what season the species 

 was observed, and whether it was common or the reverse. 

 Looking, however, to what little we know of its early history as 

 a British bird, we would scarcely be justified in regarding this 

 record as applying to more than the winter half of the year. 



3. In the first volume of MacGillivray's " History of 

 British Birds" (pp. 302-306), published in 1837, there is a 

 most interesting list of the birds to be seen around Edinburgh 

 in the winter season ; and among those specified as "frequently 

 found " on Duddingston Loch is the " Tufted Pochard, Fulig- 

 ula cristata" In vol. iv. of the same work the author 

 describes a specimen shot on this loch by his son in 

 February 1841. Along with this should be read the same 

 writer's general statement in his " Manual " (part ii., Water- 

 Birds, 1842). He there writes : "The Tufted Scaup-Duck 

 arrives in October, and departs in April. It is generally 

 dispersed, frequenting lakes, pools, marshes, and the still 

 parts of rivers, where it feeds chiefly on insects, testaceous 

 mollusca, and worms, for which it dives. It is also some- 

 times met with in estuaries and on the open sea. It is 

 more common in the southern than in the northern parts of 

 Britain." 



4. H. Osborne's remarks in his paper on the " Ornithology 

 of Caithness," read at a meeting of the Royal Physical Society 

 in January 1862, and printed in the "Proceedings" (vol. ii. 

 p. 343). " It is almost certain," he wrote, "that the Tufted 

 Pochard (Fuligula cristata) breeds in the vicinity [of Wick 

 Loch Stemster (?) ; but Loch Watten, according to Harvie- 

 Brown and Buckley's ' Fauna of Sutherland, Caithness, etc.'], 

 as specimens are observed constantly throughout the summer 

 months." This is the first indication of the species breeding 

 in Scotland. Though by itself merely presumptive evidence, 

 it has received such ample confirmation from subsequent events 

 as to amount now practically to a certainty. 



