156 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



THE LONG-TAILED DUCK (HARELDA GLACIALIS} 

 ON THE SOLWAY FIRTH. 



By Rev. H. A. MACPHERSON, M.A. 



SOME thirteen or fourteen years ago, this Arctic Duck was 

 supposed to be a very unusual visitant to the waters of 

 this estuary. The late T. C. Heysham of Carlisle, like his 

 father before him, was a keen student of local ornithology. 

 The elder Heysham commenced his practice in Carlisle in 

 1778. His naturalist son was born in 1791, and died in 

 1857. Their lives collectively covered an extended period. 

 Yet the elder Heysham never met with the Long-tailed 

 Duck, while his son only fell in with three specimens locally. 

 The first was obtained in November 1834, a young bird. 

 The second and third examples that came under his notice 

 were shot on the Eden, at a short distance from the Solway 

 Firth. These last were killed together in October 1850. 

 Two other immature specimens were killed on the rivers 

 Derwent and Ellen, before the sixties. In 1879 Dr. Parker 

 of Gosforth secured a bird which had been killed out of a 

 flock of four at Ravenglass in November. These six speci- 

 mens were the only examples of Harelda glacialis which had 

 been obtained, to our knowledge, in Cumbrian waters, up to 

 the time when the writer commenced his investigations into 

 the " Ornis " of Lakeland in 1883. It was in January 

 1884 that he detected a male Long-tailed Duck upon the 

 waters of a loch situated at an easy flight from the Solway. 

 It was not in full dress, nor did it assume nuptial plumage 

 prior to its death in the following March (when it was re- 

 luctantly shot for the local museum, which then existed in a 

 pitiful form). Still, it was a handsome bird, with a very 

 white head, and bold facial markings. In the autumn of 

 1884 the writer had the pleasure of recognising the flight of 

 a small party of Long-tailed Ducks, as the fowl flew up the 

 Esk side. No birds of this species are known to have visited 

 the English Solway in 1885 or 1886. In 1887 came a 

 memorable influx of Long-tailed Ducks. Many other parts 

 of Britain were visited at the same time. Indeed, the writer 



