510 ANATID^. 



Blyth wrote in 183S, in ' The Naturalist,' vol. iii. p. 413 : — 

 " Mr. Hoy informs me that a beautiful male Hooded Mergan- 

 ser, in thoroughly mature plumage, has been secured in the 

 county of Norfolk ; being the first known instance of this 

 bird occurring in its adult garb in Britain." 



The late Mr. T. C. Eyton has described and figured in 

 his 'History of the Rarer British Birds' (p. 75), a bird of 

 this species obtained by himself in the Menai Straits in 

 the winter of 1830—31. The Author heard of an example 

 in the collection of Mr. Anthony Ralph Biddulph, of Burton 

 Park, Petworth, Sussex, said to have been shot near that 

 place ; but Mr. A. E. Knox makes no mention of it in his 

 standard work on the Birds of Sussex. According to Gould, 

 the collection of Mr. W. Christy Horsfall, of Horsforth-Low 

 Hall, near Leeds, contained a pair said to have been shot in 

 the vicinity ; but Mr. W. Eagle Clarke states that he is un- 

 able to trace these specimens. Mr. Gervase F. Mathew, R.N., 

 states (Zool. s.s. p. 2182) that a friend shot a '"magnificent 

 pair of Hooded Mergansers, the male being in splendid 

 plumage," near Sheerness in March 1870.* 



As regards Scotland, in the late Mr. Sinclair's Catalogue 

 of the Birds of Caithness, published in 1841, mention is 

 made of a specimen, which, according to Mr. R. Gray, is 

 still in the collection formed by that gentleman, and now at 

 Thurso. The late Mr. John Colquhoun, in his ' Sporting 

 Days ' (p. 20), has described his observation of three Hooded 

 Mergansers in the Firth of Forth on the 5th of May, 1853. 



Ireland, however, as might be expected from its position, 

 affords the most numerous as well as the best authenticated 

 instances of the visits of this American species. An ex- 

 ample obtained by Dr. Chute about the year 1840 at Dingle 

 Bay, CO. Kerry, is at Chute Hall, Tralee ; and Watters has 

 stated, on the authority of Mr. Glennon, a bird-stuflfer of 

 Dublin, that an immature female, shot near Knockdrin 

 Castle, CO. Meath, was in the collection of Sir R. Levinge, 



* The bald insertion of this species in a mere catalogue entitled 'The 

 Sonicisctshiic Fauna,' by Mr. W. Haker (Somerset. Archiooi. Proc. p. 146), is, 

 like many similar recordb, unworthy of consideration. 



