AUTUMN ON THE MOORS 225 



shoveler : we have shot two, on Aug - . 12th and 20th respec- 

 tively, after which date they have disappeared. 



Such are the ducks regularly met with on the moorland 

 loughs. A few records of others, which must only be 

 regarded as casual occurrences, may be added. 



On October 4th (1880), I noticed on Darden lough, 

 along with a dozen mallards, a big black diving-duck, 

 showing a white "speculum." Seeing that this was a 

 stranger, I took opportunity, while it was under water, 

 to put the mallards away, and then (as it remained under 

 for half a minute at a time) easily "ran down" on the 

 diving-duck. It proved to be a velvet scoter — a strange 

 bird to find on a hill-lough at 1200 feet, and some 23 

 miles inland : for this, in autumn, is a sea-frequenting - duck, 

 and its occurrence here is quoted in Yarrell's British Bii'ds 

 (4th ed., vol. iv., p. 477). This duck (a female) weighed 

 3 lb. 2 oz., and had two curious patches of white on either 

 side of the head, one at base of beak (like a golden-eye 

 drake), the other, larger and more defined, on the ear. 

 The crop contained only gravel. 



Hardly less remarkable was the occurrence of the sheld- 

 duck, an even more marine species, at this same lough. 

 There were seven of them, and, deliberately flying over 

 the guns, they paid the penalty of innocence by losing 

 half their company, three being killed and a fourth 

 wounded. This was on November 20th, 1877, and I 

 believe that to this day the villagers of Elsdon suspect that 

 those gaudily-plumaged ducks were never honestly come 

 by, but that they had strayed from some private pond or 

 ornamental water. I have, however, noted three subse- 

 quent occurrences of sheld-ducks on loughs equally remote 

 from the sea. 



Two other sea-ducks of which single instances may be 



P 



