202 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



bourhood of Lilford. Of these last three, two were 

 killed by my brother in January 1876 from a flock 

 of eight or ten, and presented by me to the North- 

 ampton Museum. I have no record of the capture 

 of a male Goosander in the adult plumage in North- 

 amptonshire, but a very fine bird in this dress 

 haunted the river close to Lilford in company with 

 a female of his species and a Golden-Eye for some 

 days in February 1870, and I have several other 

 records of the appearance of old males upon the 

 Nen, amongst them the following very interesting 

 note communicated by my friend Mr. G. M. Edmonds, 

 of Oundle; in a letter dated February 29, 1876, he 

 writes : — " Here I have seen Goosanders, Mergansers, 

 and Smews. In November 1868 I was returning 

 from shooting over my farm in the ' Heme ' (below 

 Oundle), and saw my meadow (in which Ashton 

 Lock is), a field of 23 acres, literally overspread, to 

 my great surprise, with these birds ; it was blowing 

 hard at the time. The nearest Goosander was 80 

 yards from me. The sun was shining on his beautiful 

 dark green neck and salmon-coloured breast ; there 

 were between 40 and 50 of them dispersed about the 

 field with the Mergansers and Smews. I don't think 

 I ever was more pleased than in recognizing my old 

 Caithness friends near Oundle ; the Mergansers I 

 had also often seen flying close to me in Caithness ; 

 the Smews puzzled me. I started off to try and 

 stalk them, but a shot fired at some distance off 

 caused the sudden flight of the whole lot, and great 

 mortification to me. The next morning, going into 

 the town, a Peterborough gunner-man who had shot 

 three birds at Warmington brought them to me ; 

 these were beautiful specimens of the three birds." 



