244 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



of Newcastle wrote in 1874: "There can be little 

 doubt that this species occasionally bred at Prest- 

 wich Carr," a famous place for birds before it was 

 drained, and he had in his collection a Pintail Duck 

 which had been shot there during the nesting season. 



In June 1881 Mr. Harvie - Brown took four 

 duck's eggs on the island of Haskeir, Inner Hebri- 

 des, which he subsequently identified as those of the 

 Pintail by the appearance of the down and a feather 

 found in the nest {Froc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinh., 

 1881-83). 



The following year Mr. J. M. Wallis obtained a 

 nest and eggs of the Pintail on a loch in Sutherland 

 well known to Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley, 

 who have recorded the fact in their " Fauna of 

 Sutherland and Caithness," 1887, p. 190. In May 

 1898 Mr. William Evans of Edinburgh found six 

 or seven pairs of Pintails on Loch Leven in 

 Kinross-shire, and discovered four nests. He was 

 able not only to distinguish the ducks when put 

 off their nests — which were placed in tufts of grass 

 in dry and open situations at some distance from the 

 water — but by subsequently placing two of the eggs 

 in an incubator he had the satisfaction of disclosing 

 " two unmistakable Pintail ducklings " {Ann. Scot. 

 Nat. Hist., 1898, p. 162). 



In Ireland, according to Sir R. Payne Gallwey 

 ("Fowler in Ireland," p. 51), one or two pairs of 

 Pintails breed every year on Lord Castletown's 

 demesne at Abbeyleix, Queen's Co., and he adds 

 that he himself has seen female Pintails with young 



