34 



JOURNAL OF THE WILD BIRD IXVESTIGATIOX SOCIETY. 



ducks, for I saw them drop into it, and dis- 

 covered its situation by viewing- tlieir flight. 

 Bv its old water-line was orowing AInpcciiriis 

 gcniciilatus, quite out of place and miserably 

 poor on that limv-sandy heath, which was 

 much more fitted for .1. acqitalis (=fulvus), 

 another rare duck-carried species, which I 

 personallv onh' k-now in Lincolnshire in 

 " duckv '" spots. In the waters of this 

 hidden dew-pond were: (\) Potamoi^^cton 

 densus, (2) P. perfoUatus, (p.,) Rauiiucitht.'; 

 chdiictii, (4) ZannichcIIia pcilnslris. I believe, 

 for I could not reach 2 and,':;, but I took them 

 bcilh in anotiier dew-pond due south, but 

 close b}' the village of Everley. 



Another dew-pond, which I discn\ered a 

 few days later, was (juite dried out. There 

 I found, late in August, that some such series 

 of plants must ha\e grown in it, for its dried 

 bed contained C'alluna seed and old leaves, 

 with the seeds of PotuDUis^cton and those f^f 

 Ranunculus drouclii, I judged. 



It would be very easv for me to wi'ite a 

 whole series of articles to show how seeds arc 

 carried tf) ponds, but it would be much wis'-r 

 of the vounger members of the W'.B.I.S. Us 

 studv a whole series of ptjnds and to publish 

 ihe results in this Journal. " When vou 

 teach vourself vour learning clings," our 

 phrase sa\'s here. At anv and e^•erv oppor- 

 tunilv let me beg (hem to do so. [ analyse 

 the flora of e\-er\- pond I meet with. Often I 

 ne^'er see manv of tliem again, but new and 

 confirmator\' facts are often discovered bv 

 doing so, such as the duck-carriage of Alope- 

 curus acqualis above, which I have ne\er met 

 with bv mv regularlv studied ponds. Manv 

 fads hax'e been demonstrated at casuallv and 

 once visited ponds, which I ha\'e sought else- 

 M'here for in sain as vet. 



To close with I will name two hybrids of 

 species which mav ser\e as examples of what 

 the intensi\'e studv of isolated i^onds mav 

 demonstraie. 



In ni\' list of bird-carried pond species 



Alopecurus gcniculatus is found. It is in 

 20 out of a ion isolated ponds, as a rule, in 

 N.W. Lincolnshire: but it should be noted in 

 no great cjuantitv for the most part. As a 

 result, I suppose, it sometimes hvbridizes 

 with its near relation .1. prutcnsis , of the 

 damper parts of pastures, and the cross 

 A. geneculatus x pratcnsis may be found bv 

 ponds rarely on rather drier spots than A. 

 gcniculatus frecpients. This hvbrid plant 

 being rather larger than its water-loving 

 mother-parent. This, howe^■er, is not all, 

 but it set me thinking and narrowly observ- 

 ing. I discovered that still more rarely, up 

 abo\-e on the even drier Chalk-Boulder-Clay, 

 was the other hybrid ^4. pratcnsis x gcnicul- 

 atus. which coidd be detected at once by Us 

 glaucous coloration. This of course is foimd 

 by its mother-parent A. pratcnsis. Both 

 these hybrids ha\"e arisen from .1. genicu- 

 latus having been carried to pasture ponds by 

 ducks in fields where .4. pratoisis grows. 



Mv second plant shall be the so-called 

 variety of Bidcns triparlila, called Integra, 

 Koch, which is \er\- rarelv carried to the sides 

 of field ponds bv ducks, I suppose, for I have 

 not vet fulh' demonstrated the means of 

 carriage in this case. 



I have met with this so-called \arietv bv the 

 Ri\-er 4niames at Putnev. man\- \-ears ago. 

 and bv Braford Water, in Lincoln Citv. In 

 the latter case, if not in the f(.)rmer — for it is 

 so manv years back, I cannot sav for certain 

 now, for I ha\e no lield notes made an the 

 spot — both B. tripartita and B. ccrnua were 

 present. I noted that this so-called inlegra 

 h<id tlie pappus bristles not according to the 

 type, i.e., not two, as the typical B. tripartita 

 always has, Init three, or even sometimes 

 four, like B. ccrnua. 4'hinking this form 

 had been fully studied, and mislead by the 

 .^rd England Botany description and figure, 

 I took no notice though mv seed collection 

 clearly demonstrated the above facts. When, 

 however, I met with this form by an isolated 



