266 The Irish Naturalist. 



this and Bewick's Swan, where the birds are only seen at 

 large, and not obtained.) 



Bewick's Swan. A specimen of this species, shot on lyough 

 Iron by Colonel Malone, is preserved at Barronston. Mrs. 

 Battersby informs me that small flocks of swans sometimes, 

 but rarely, visit L,ough Iron and Glen Lough. One shot at 

 Granston Manor, about 1888, is preserved there, but I^ord 

 Castletown considers the species very rare. Mr. Kinahan says 

 that on the callows of the Shannon very large flocks of swans 

 sometimes appear, and a few small flocks yearly. He believes 

 that both species occur there. 



The W11.D Duck is reported to breed in every county in 

 Ireland, numerously in Fermanagh, Cavan, Leitrim, Roscom- 

 mon, lyongford, Westmeath, King's and Queen's Counties. I 

 have met with it on all the lakes I have visited, breeding in 

 numberless instances. It breeds both among the heather on 

 the red bogs, and in the sedgy vegetation on islands in lakes. 

 On the marshes near Granston, in Queen's Co., great numbers 

 were sitting on eggs, on the 14th April, 1893, often amid slight 

 herbage ; but I have found fresh eggs on the 9th June, on 

 Lough Erne. I was shown three trees at Barrowston in which 

 Wild Ducks had nested. On the 2nd June, 1892, as I was ex- 

 ploring an island on Lough Derg, where Wild Ducks breed, 

 a Mallard flapped along before me, as a duck would, so as to 

 draw me away from its brood. This shows that the male is 

 not indifferent to the safety of his family. On the 12th June, 

 1 89 1, the Mallards on Lough Key were beginning to change 

 their plumage, their necks showing brown. 



At Kellyville, on the borders of Queen's Co. and Kildare, a 

 lake of fifteen acres in extent, in the demesne, has been pre- 

 served for a very long period as a duck decoy, and is carefully 

 looked after by the owner, Mr. Webber. From the approach, 

 one can see in winter the greater part of this lake swarming 

 with multitudes of ducks, chiefly of this species and Teal, 

 but also including numbers of Wigeon with many Pintails, 

 Shovellers, Tufted Ducks, and Pochards, the two latter species 

 keeping apart from the dense crowd of Wild Ducks. As dark- 

 ness comes on, one may hear flock after flock leaving the lake 

 to feed over the country, and return next morning to spend 

 the daytime on Kellyville Lake. When the lake is frozen 

 they sit on the ice, covering five or six acres, the numbers 



