78 LONG-TAILED DUCK. 
the winter of 1840: the species has also occurred on the 
River Isis, near Kennington. In Derbyshire some visit the 
Trent in hard winters. In Durham it has occurred near Bishop 
Auckland; also on the Cumberland coast. In December, 1849, 
after a long chase, one of these birds was obtained by Arthur 
Dymoke Bradshaw, Esq., of Southampton, as that gentleman 
has written me word. In Huntingdonshire one was killed 
in January, 1838. In Devonshire a few have been obtained 
—one near Knightsbridge; also in Dorsetshire, as likewise in 
Kent, Essex, and Suffolk. They sometimes are on sale in 
the London markets. In Norfolk the species in the adult 
state occurs occasionally, though rarely, on Breydon, near 
Yarmouth, in hard winters. The immature birds are not so 
uncommon. 
In Scotland they are plentiful on the Frith of Forth, and 
in Aberdeenshire, near Banff. They also appear in considerable 
numbers in Orkney and Shetland. : 
In Ireland they rank among the occasional visitants. The 
counties of Galway and Dublin have furnished ‘specimens. 
The late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, has mentioned 
his having procured specimens four years successively from 
that neighbourhood. 
During the day-time, if not engaged in feeding, they may 
be seen off the shore, resting on the rising and falling waves, 
or every now and then getting on the wing, and ‘flying 
round and round in circles, chasing one another, squattering 
along the surface, half flying, half swimming, accompanying 
all these gambols with their curious cries. When the storms 
are at their loudest, and the waves running mountains high, 
then their glee seems to reach its highest pitch.’ Towards 
night they all fly off together for some favourite resting or 
feeding ground, so to call what is only a ground-swell. 
By the end of October or beginning of November, small 
flocks of these birds assemble in suitable localities in the 
northern parts of Scotland, from regions still farther north, 
and during the succeeding months of December and January, 
according to the severity of the weather, their numbers are 
added to by fresh arrivals, till large flights are collected 
together; until this is the case they generally go in small 
parties of three or four, one a male, the others females. 
Towards the end of March they begin again to separate, 
and this goes on till the second or third week in April, or 
even to the latter end of May, as the season is comparatively 
