414 ANATlDJi. 



1825, stated that this species then nested at Scoulton Mere, 

 a spot which has been abandoned for many years ; but at 

 present it undoubtedly breeds on Lord Walsingham's estate 

 at Merton, and, probably, in some other localities in Norfolk. 

 Hornsea Mere, in Yorkshire, has long been a well-known 

 and favourite station, and, according to Mr. W. E. Clarke, 

 about fifty pairs were there in 1881 ; there are a few other 

 places in ilie same county; and Mr. R. J. Howard informs 

 the Editor that since the introduction of a pair of pinioned 

 birds on some reservoirs in Lancashire, several broods have 

 been annually reared there. Of late years a moderate 

 number have nested in Dorsetshire ; and there may be some 

 other small and isolated colonies, respecting which it is un- 

 necessary to be more explicit. 



In Scotland it is a generally distributed and familiar 

 species, and Mr. Harvie-Brown informs the Editor that it 

 undoubtedly breeds on a loch near Doune. In Ireland it is 

 stated by Col. Whyte ('The Field,' June 2nd, 1877) to 

 have nested on his property in co. Sligo ; and Sir R. Payne- 

 Gallwey adduces evidence of its having done so on Lough 

 Derg, and Lough Beg. In the winter the species is very 

 abundant. 



While here, it resorts to inland lakes and rivers, as well 

 as the sea-shore, and though a difficult bird to take in a 

 decoy owing to its shyness and caution, and the facility with 

 which its expertness in diving enables it to get back under 

 water in the pipe, yet, from its abundance as a species, 

 great numbers are often taken ; thousands having been sold 

 in some winters in the London markets. Montagu men- 

 tions that the method formerly practised for taking the 

 Pochard was something similar to that of taking Woodcocks. 

 Poles were erected at the avenues to the decoys, and after a 

 great number of these birds had collected for some time on 

 the pond, to which wild-fowl resort only by day, and go to 

 the neighbouring fens to feed by night, a net was at a given 

 time erected by pulleys to these poles, beneath which a deej) 

 pit had previously been dug ; and as these birds, like the 

 Woodcocks, go to feed just as it is dark, and are said always 



