12 
The Teal, the smallest and most beautiful of the Ducks, is: 
tolerably common as a winter visitant; the specimen in the- 
Museum was shot at South Wraxall in December 1875. 
The Tufted Duck, also very ornamental, was killed at Warleigh 
during the winter of 1870, whilst the Common Pochard was 
killed on the Avon near Newton. 
The Golden Eye is a much rarer species, and does not breed in 
England. The specimen in the Museum is from Freshford. 
The Common Scoter is a still rarer bird as an inland visitor, 
although numerous at times on the Devon and Cornish coasts. 
There are only one or two notices of its appearance in either 
Wilts or Somerset. Although thoroughly at home in the heaviest 
surf, it cuts but a sorry figure on land. The specimen in the 
Museum was seen to fly against a garden wall in S. James's 
Square in April, 1869; it broke its wing and was picked up by a 
man at work close by. 
The Little Grebe or Dabchick is with us all the year round, 
but, on account of its shy retiring habits, it is not often caught 
sight of on our rivers and pools; of the two specimens in the 
Museum one was taken on the river side at Grosvenor, the 
other at Newton Bridge. 
The rest of the birds to be mentioned are entirely sea birds. 
The Red-throated Diver has only been noted in Wilts and 
Somerset either in a thoroughly exhausted condition, or else dead, 
from long contending with heavy weather. ‘The fine specimen in. 
our Museum was picked up in The Cloisters alive and uninjured, 
but thoroughly exhausted, during a furious gale in October 1881 ; 
the measurement from tip to tip of its spread wings was three- 
feet six inches. 
The two Gulls, the Blackheaded Gull and the Kittywake,. 
were obtained respectively at Warleigh and Kelston ; the other 
Gulls, also the Razorbill, Guillemot, and some others, were 
obtained at Weston-super-Mare, and are, therefore, not strictly 
local. 
