Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Iviii. (19 14), No. 9. 19 



call-ducks. The numbers of resident birds are increased in 

 summer by the many broods of flappers, but it is in 

 September and October that the first great change occurs. 

 Probably the immigrants arrive in small numbers through- 

 out the autumn, but towards the end of November there is 

 usually a sudden and large second increase in numbers. It 

 is,however, during a smart frost that the biggest gatherings 

 of Mallards are to be seen. Rostherne, being deep, is the 

 last of the Cheshire meres to be frozen over, and when the 

 other waters are closed by ice great congregations of 

 ducks collect on the still open portions of Rostherne ; the 

 Mallards then often number some thousands. On May 

 6th, 191 3, we found a nest of a Mallard in the under- 

 growth of the Gale Bog which contained eleven normal 

 eggs and one which in colour and shape approached more 

 nearly to the egg of the Tufted Duck. The gamekeeper 

 placed the eggs under a hen, but unfortunately the small 

 egg was destroyed, and we were unable to discover if it 

 was a case of dual ownership. 



Although the Teal nests 

 Alias crecca crecca Linnaeus, in considerable numbers 



in Tatton Park, and is 

 often present on Tatton Mere in flocks consisting of forty, 

 fifty or more birds, it is not an abundant duck on 

 Rostherne. It is, however, frequently present in small 

 numbers from autumn until spring; occasionally a 

 "spring" of half a dozen or more birds will remain on 

 the water for several days together, but as there is, all 

 through the winter, frequent movement between Rostherne 

 and Tatton, birds which are present one day may be 

 absent the next 



The Wigeon is both a 

 Anas penelope Linnaeus. passage migrant and a 



winter visitor at Rostherne. 

 The largest numbers occur in winter ; we have on several 



