116 THE POCHAED. 



1870-71, and I shot a beautiful male on the latter, near 

 the Old Bound Road, in the end of December 1874. Mr. 

 Kelly records that there are some specimens in local collec- 

 tions about Lauder which were procured in the vicinity of 

 the Leader ; ^ and Mr. Hardy mentions one which was shot 

 on the Whitadder, above Cockburn, in January 1877.^ Mr. 

 Weddell, Long Birgham, writes to me that he has sometimes 

 killed this duck on the Tweed in that neighbourhood ; and 

 Mr. H. H. Craw states that he has occasionally shot it on 

 the mill pond at Foulden West Mains. The lake at Duns 

 Castle, where wild-fowl of all kinds are carefully protected 

 by the proprietor, W. J. Hay, Esq., is sometimes visited by 

 the Pochard, a flock of seven having been observed there 

 by the gamekeeper, Mr. William Smith, on the 27th of 

 January 1887, and from twenty to thirty on the I7th of 

 October of the same year. 



Although the great majority of Pochards return to 

 northern regions in spring, a few remain to breed in various 

 parts of Britain, and Mr. Gray records that a nest has been 

 found on the banks of a loch in Fifeshire.^ 



The subject of our notice is a wary bird, and when it 

 enters the mouth of a decoy pipe with other wild-fowl it 

 dives and escapes under water if any attempt be made to 

 drive it further in along with them. For this reason it is 

 taken on what is called a " flight pond," having nets at the 

 sides so constructed that one of them can be raised by the 

 fowler when the ducks are flushed, according to the direc- 

 tion in which they fly. A few of the leading Pochards are 

 allowed to pass over the place where the net is concealed, 

 and then it is suddenly raised up so as to intercept the 

 great bulk of the flock, which strike against the net in their 

 flight, and flutter down into a number of small pens con- 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Chcb, vol. vii. p. 305. 2 jbid. vol. viii. p. 196. 



3 JbUl. vol. ix. p. 366. 



