88 ANATID.E. 



by Mr. Mewburn. " When first seen, it was in a field 

 adjoining the cliffs, at Port Wrinkle, a small fishing place, 

 about four miles from St. Germain''s, near which it remained 

 for two or three days. Being several times disturbed by 

 attempts to shoot it, it came more inland, to a low situated 

 farm, called Pool, and there associated with the conmion 

 geese ; but was wild, and immediately took wing upon being 

 approached. Here it kept to and fro for a day or two, but 

 being much disturbed, left, and came down upon the shore 

 of the St. Germain's river, or estuary, when the following 

 day, the 20th of June 1821, it was shot by John Brickford 

 in a wheat field at Sconnor, about a mile from St. Germain's. 

 When killed, it was in the most perfect state, having only 

 one shot in the head. Some gentlemen who saw it the fol- 

 lowing day, requested him to let me have it, which he pro- 

 mised ; but though he knew I was a bird stufFer, he had a 

 wife, who, from some strange infatuation, thought she could 

 stuff it ; but being soon convinced of her inability, she cut 

 off the wings for dusters, and threw the skin away ; and it 

 was not till three weeks afterwards that I heard of the circum- 

 stance, when I sent a servant, who brought it covered with 

 mud, the head torn off, but luckily preserved, as also one 

 wing, when I had it washed, and put it together as well as 

 I was able. The skin, in this state, was obligingly forward- 

 ed to Newcastle by Mr. Mewburn, for Mr. Bewick's use, 

 from whence it passed into Mr. R. Wingate's hands, who has 

 most ably reset it, and thus preserved one of the most uncom- 

 mon ornithological rarities ever known in England." 



The bad management of the skin in the first instance 

 explains Mr. Couch's remark on this bird in his Cornish 

 Fauna ; namely, " one specimen only is on record, and that 

 was mutilated when ascertained." 



Mr. Bewick's description of the specimen at Newcastle is 

 as follows: — "The bill is reddish-yellow, with a jointed 



