100 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



summer^ evidently breeding.'^ The Drake bird is very prettily 

 marked, though not so brightly plumaged as the last-named species, 

 but the scapulars are very long and graceful; and the general 

 plumage pleasingly varied with brown and grey. 



Querquedula Glocitans. " Bimaculated Duck/' I mention this 

 bird, because Hart has one in his collection, which is worth noting, 

 as very little seems to be known about the bird at all. This specimen 

 was taken in Hornby decoy on January 4th, 1861, and was bought 

 by Hart out of the collection of the well-known Grantley Berkeley. 

 It is in good condition, and bears out very fairly in its plumage the 

 colouring and description given it by Meyer, in his " British Birds." 



Mareca Penelope. "Wigeon." In hard winters this bird ap- 

 peal's in our meadows in flocks varying from ten to twenty ; greatly 

 enlivening the scene, as they whirl round over your head, with their 

 white bellies standing out in striking contrast with the darker sky 

 overhead. Their flight is exceedingly rapid ; and in their flight 

 they always keep very close together, so much so that they can 

 easily be distinguished by this custom from any other kind of water- 

 fowl. I remember one day in February marking down twenty-four 

 of these birds in a bend of our river, and wishing to note their 

 ways and doings accurately I set myself to stalk them. I managed 

 to get within a very few feet of them, and counted four or five 

 male birds whose heads were close together, and which, had I had 

 a gun with me, would have offered a most perfect shot — affording 

 a chance of bagging some three or four couple with a right and left. 

 This bird once afforded me an example of a fact that I had often 

 heard spoken of, though I had never verified it — that a wounded 

 Duck will invariably creep out on to the bank to die. A friend of 

 mine had winged a Duck on the previous evening, but had lost it ; 

 and on taking a turn round by the Broad on the next day, there 

 sure enough, I spied on the bank the bird that I presume he had 

 wounded the night before. It was a fine Drake Wigeon, lying 

 out perfectly exposed upon the bank, its head being stretched out to 

 its full length, and its wings slightly expanded, the bird evidently 

 having been dead but a few hours. The Wigeon appears also to 

 undergo the same curious double moult as the Mallard; only it 



