Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Iviii. (1914), No. 0. 23 



sociable of the diving ducks, and it is exceedingly shy ; 

 when feeding it keeps apart from the others, and when 

 flushed speedily flies to the opposite end of the mere. 



The Scoter is dis- 

 Oidemia nigra nigra (Linnaeus), tinctly a salt-water 



duck, and we have 

 only observed it at Rostherne in two years. In 19 12 a 

 single drake was first noticed on the water on August 

 13th, and remained there throughout the month. In 1913 

 there were extraordinary movements of Scoters in different 

 parts of England and Wales, and black and pale-faced 

 birds appeared on Rostherne and neighbouring waters 

 from June 19th until the end of the first week in July. 

 The largest number noticed on any one date was seven 

 adult drakes on July 7th. In the same year, on December 

 7th, there were four pale-cheeked birds on Rostherne. 



The Goos- 

 Mergus merganser merganser Linnaeus, ander is a 



winter visitor 

 to Rostherne, but is not noticed every year. We observed 

 it during the winters of 1902-3, 1905 (January), 1906-7 

 and 1912 (February). More brown-headed female or 

 immature birds visit the Cheshire meres than adult 

 drakes, but on several occasions there have been fine 

 drakes on Rostherne. The birds are more on Tatton 

 than on Rostherne during their visits, for probably it is 

 easier to capture fish in the shallower waters, and on one 

 or two occasions the visits to Rostherne have been on 

 days on which Tatton was ice-bound. 



The Smew is a rare visitor 

 Mergus albelliis Linnaeus, to the Cheshire meres, and 



it has only been noticed on 

 Rostherne on one occasion. At the end of January, 1909, 

 a duck, which we saw first on Tatton, appeared on 



