58 ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES, ETC. 



walking on the marshy ground left on draining the lake, which 

 had been done temporarily some time before. We likewise saw 

 four pairs of Shovellers, Anas dypeata^ and a Wood Sand|)iper, 

 Totanus glareola. The latter bird was in the air when first 

 noticed. It flies in circles, and at every change in the direction 

 of its flight it produces a peculiar, musical, sharp, and trilling 

 sound, which endures for several seconds. At the same time the 

 wings are observed striking the air with a short, rapid, tremulous 

 motion, which there can be little doubt is the cause of this 

 remarkable sound. The sound produced in a similar manner by 

 the Snipe and other waders has not the same sweet, almost 

 warbling tone of this bird. 



On the 6tli of April of the same year, we observed three 

 ducks feeding by the margin of the lake, and by a careful 

 examination through a small telescope, we ascertained that they 

 were Garganies, Anas querquedula, two males and one female. On 

 the same day we noticed six other species of ducks — namely, the 

 common Wild Duck, An. boschas ; Shoveller, An. clypeata ; 

 Tufted T)\XQk^ An. faligula ; Wigeon, An. j^^nelojye ; Teal, An. 

 crecca ; and Pochard, An. ferina. 



In March, 1858, I was taken by Oswald Simm, an intelligent 



observer, to the farm of Mr. Lowes, of Cramlington, to see a 



duck in the perfect garb of the drake. It was swimming in a 



small pond with some other ducks, and so completely did its 



plumage resemble that of the male, that I should never have 



thought of questioning its sex. On leaving the water, however, 



it commenced to quack, a cry peculiar to the female, and thus 



rendered any announcement of the fact unnecessary : it had itself 



fully proclaimed its own sex. It had the curled feathers in the 



tail, and in every respect resembled the drake, except in having 



a small patch of brown on the cheek immediately below the eye. 



Mr. Lowes gave me the following account of this remarkable 



duck: — She is 15 or 16 years old, and for 12 years of her life 



she was in the plumage of her sex. Up to that time she laid 



regularly, and hatched several broods. In fact, the ducks I had 



seen in her company were her own offspring. After the change 



