102 THE BIRDS OF CUMBERLAND. 



Messrs. Mann, G. Holmes, J. Fell, and A. Smith, 

 have been always stragglers, though Mr. Grayson 

 considers the species of tolerably frequent occurrence 

 on the south-west coast of the county. Personally, 

 we have only met with the Pintail in Cumberland 

 on two occasions, and on each we observed a single 

 bird. 



Mr. J. Backhouse, junr., kindly informs us that 

 the Pintails recorded by him (Zool., 1882, p. 353), 

 as nesting annually, and up to 1881, at Low Wood, 

 near Ambleside, Westmorland, were pinioned and 

 introduced stock, t We have examined Pintails shot 

 in that county in winter. 



Genus ANAS. 



A. Boschas. Wild Duck. 



The Wild Duck is an abundant resident, breeding 

 plentifully near inland pools, as well as among the 

 mosses of the coast. Elevated situations are 

 occasionally preferred to contain the nest. An 

 isolated pillar of red sandstone, on the Lyne, is, 

 or was, a favourite nesting-place, and on the same 

 river we found a nest on a sheer rock, about sixteen 

 leet above the water. It contained eleven eggs, 

 buried in grey down. 



In some localities, w^here many pairs of Wild 

 Duck breed, as at Moorthwaite, the Wild Mallards 



+ Miss Meyer, the owner of these Pintails, informs us that her birds bred 

 in 1879, 1880, and 1881, after which she parted with them. They were in no 

 sense wild birds. 



