THE BIRDS OF CUMBERLAND. 101 



latter portion of the month, and those we examined 

 were drakes, doffing the duck plmiiage of the breed- 

 ing season. 



Wigeon are night feeders, and rest during the 

 day on the gravel beds of estuaries, or in the rank 

 vegetation of inland waters, which they occasionally 

 leave to fly round at a considerable height, the 

 drakes uttering their well-known whistle, and the 

 ducks their harsher call, if the season be advanced. 



Genus DAFILA. 



D. Acuta. Pintail. 



The Pintail is a winter visitant in sparing 

 numbers, chiefly met with on our estuary rivers, 

 thouofh odd birds are shot on inland mosses in 

 severe weather. During continued frost, the Pin- 

 tail is more numerous than at other times ; but 

 though local specimens exist in most collections, 

 and far more have been eaten, it is rarely present 

 in large numbers. On a single occasion, two birds 

 were shot out of a flock at Pocklifte, estimated to 

 consist of about a hundred birds, by Mr. A. Smith, 

 who considered that they were tired birds, anxious 

 to rest upon the margin of the Eden. The entire 

 flock departed on being fired into, and none were 

 subsequently met with, so that the birds were 

 evidently on passage, probably to Ireland. In a 

 single instance also, two Pintails were shot by 

 Messrs. Mann, out of a large flock, in the spring 

 of the year, and these no doubt were on the vernal 

 passage. Pintails obtained on other occasions by 



