180 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



PINTAIL. 



Dafila acuta (Lin.). 



Specimens have been observed. One was seen in Firth of Forth 

 by Mr. J. H. Buchanan [in lit, 1st Jan., 1879]. Two were seen 

 by Mr. J. Henderson in Tyree [ex ore\. And 3 males were 

 obtained at Bowhill, Selkirkshire, in the last week of February 

 and on the 14th March [R. Gray, loc. cit\ 



WILD DUCK. 



Anas eoschas, Lin. 



Unusually large numbers of Mallards frequented our streams in 

 Stirlingshire for a week or ten days at the beginning of the storm. 

 During that time, while the frost hung heavily on the aspens and 

 willoAvs by the brooks, I usually succeeded in bagging two or three 

 or four Duck every forenoon. Later they disappeared from 

 inland haunts and took to the estuaries in surprising numbers, 

 where they remained all winter, only coming inland when the 

 short temporary thaws took place. Their unusual abundance on 

 the Firth of Forth was several times noticed by myself both at 

 Bo'ness and lower down the Firth ; and similar reports of their 

 great numbers have reached me from Aberdeenshire, Forfar- 

 shire, and Berwickshire, on which latter coast Mr. Hardy one day 

 counted 170 in a flock. In the beginning of February I saw also 

 very large flocks in Dalgetty Bay and at Aberdour, in the Firth of 

 Forth; and I heard also of their extreme abundance in Mull and 

 Tyree, and elsewhere on the west coast. At Loch Awe, which was 

 not frozen over, Ducks of various species were more numerous than 

 on any former occasion which my informant could remember (he 

 is 52 years of age); but a gamekeeper assured me that many died, and, 

 at the breeding season of 1879, there was "not one for twelve Ducks 

 nesting on the Loch side," as compared with last season. In end of 

 April I found remains of more than one Duck on the islands and 

 shore. Wild Duck in masses were last seen on the Berwickshire 

 coast by Mr. Hardy as late as the 29th April. Their scarcity at 

 many localities was not probably so much from actual deaths as 

 from the unusual lateness of the spring, though deaths also occurred. 

 On May 5th, or a day or two sooner, a nest of 11 hatched out at 

 Dunipace. The nest was in an open grass field. A perceptible 

 increase in the numbers of Wild Duck was observable about the 



