ZOOLOGY. 



ON KING DUCKS ( SOMATERIA SPECTABILIS) IN 



ST. ANDREWS BAY, &c. 



By ROBERT WALKER. 



'T^HE King Duck has occupied a place in all the lists of 

 A British Birds published since the days of Pennent and 

 Bullock. The latter stated to Colonel Montague that he found 

 the bird breeding in Papa Westra, one of the Orkney Islands. 

 Since his time, it has not been known to nest there, and the 

 records of its occurrence in that quarter, or at any other part of 

 the British coast, are far from numerous, and it is to be feared 

 that some of them may not be perhaps altogether reliable. 

 However, this may be, I am not aware that any specimens of 

 this duck have been obtained anywhere around the mainland 

 of Scotland. The following note, therefore, on a small flock of 

 King Ducks, in St. Andrews Bay and the mouth of the Tay, last 

 spring, may be of some interest to zoologists. 



On the morning of the sixth of March 1872, I saw a number 

 of ducks swimming about, opposite the old castle of St. And- 

 rews. At first I took them for Eiders, as this is a rather favourite 

 place for that bird, and although somewhat surprised at their 

 early appearance, I was inclined to ascribe this to the mildness 

 of the past winter. They were a considerable way out at sea, 

 and seemed to me to consist of five females and two males. 

 After watching closely for some time, it struck me forcibly that 

 there was something or other in their appearance and attitudes 

 that I could not quite reconcile with my previous acquaintance 

 with the manner of the Eider. Still, at the time, and even yet, 

 I could not define precisely what the difference really was; fur- 

 ther, and this is to some extent supplemented from what I after- 



