WATERFOWL AND THE AMERICAN POND-WEED 83 



chief interest it affords to me in the White Loch of Myrtoun 

 (which has been a sanctuary for waterfowl for more than 

 seventy years) consists in the immense number of surface- 

 feeding ducks which are attracted to the lake in the years 

 of exuberance. In ordinary seasons, diving ducks — golden- 

 eye, tufted duck, pochard are more numerous than any 

 others, except mallard and teal ; but these are quite eclipsed 

 now by great flocks of wigeon. Among other surface-feeding 

 visitors are shovellers (a pair bred last season in a 

 neighbouring swamp), and occasional gadwall. Whoopers 

 I have not seen this year, but they paid short visits in the 

 autumn of 191 3 and 1914. I watched one flock of them for 

 some time one day, consisting of twenty-two adult swans 

 and three cygnets ; but they only stayed one night and I 

 could not see them take any food. 



The introduction of the American pond-weed to British 

 waters has been attributed, I know not with what degree 

 of truth, to a Cambridge savant, who, having received some 

 pieces from a botanical correspondent in Canada, left them 

 in his wash-hand basin and went off to luncheon. When 

 he returned he found that an unsympathetic housemaid had 

 emptied the basin into the sink and the specimens were 

 gone, apparently past return. A few years went by before 

 luxuriant beds of a plant new to the British flora were 

 found in the river Cam. From the Cam it spread into 

 the canal system of England, seriously hampering, and 

 threatening wholly to hang up, all traffic on those silent 

 highways. At the present time there are probably few, if 

 any, counties in the United Kingdom where it has not 

 established itself. At all events I have recognised it in many 

 waters between the Spey and the Hampshire Test, both 

 included. 



