ANA TID.^— DUCKS. 



203, 



p. 109) : — "A friend tells the writer that thirty years ago he and another bagged 

 seventeen pairs of flappers (young Plovers) in a day on the Tilbury Levels." 

 " Flappers " are, of course, young Ducks, not Plovers. On the Old Hall Marshes, 

 Tollesbury, and all the other marshes round our coast, it is common as a breeding 

 bird. Round Harwich, " it is common and breeds on the Bentlings, where it 

 makes a nest without any attempt at concealment, much to the delight of the 

 Carrion Crows " (Kerry). 



In the Collection at Audlej^Endis a black variety (? domestic) killed at that place 

 (24), and in the winter of 1876-77 I was informed that a white one was seen on the 

 lake in Navestock Park. A hybrid specimen, the result of a cross between this species 

 and the Wigeon, was among the birds collected by the late Col. Russell. It was 

 shot on the Essex coast, but I am unable to say where. It is described as a male 

 in full plumage, showing the markings of both parents very distinctly, and is con- 

 jectured to have been bred from a Wigeon which had been wounded, and was un- 

 able, in consequence, to migrate. 



Mr. Hope observes that there are two forms of this bird, a large variety, 

 which comes first, and a small sharp-winged form, which arrives about Christ-, 

 mas. 



Gadwall : Chaidelasmus streperus. Locally " Sand Wigeon." 

 A decidedly uncommon visitor to our coast from autumn to spring. 

 Mr. Clarke mentions (24) a male killed at Wenden in Feb., 1837, and there 

 is at Saffron Walden a mature male shot on the lake at Shortgrove in March, 1862, 

 by a gamekeeper. King, in 1838, says (20), " I have in my collection a female 

 Gadwall shot about two years since on the Stour at Cornard." This bird is now 

 at Birmingham. Lindsey, writing of Harwich in 185 1, describes it (27. App. 63) as 

 " a rare species, occurring sometimes in winter, but more frequently in the spring, 

 rather than at any other season of the year, and then only in very limited num- 

 bers." Mr. Hope says it is " often shot near Harwich." Mr. Robert Page has a 

 pair, taken in his Decoy at Marsh House. 



Garganey : Querquedula circia. Locally, " Summer Teal." 

 An uncommon visitor, chiefly when on migration. I know of 

 no instance of its breeding in the county, though it has done so in 

 Suffolk and 

 Norfolk. 



Yarrell says 

 (14. iii. 166) that 

 it is rare in Essex 

 and Kent. Lind- 

 sey, writing of 

 Harwich in 185 1, 

 says (27. App. 

 62) that it 



" is rather a 



rare species, and 



though specimens 



have been seen in 



October, it more 



frequently makes 



its appearance in ^. ^ 1 j j- 1 ,10 



^y ^'^ ■ , GARGANEY, male and feittalc. 1/8. 



the sprmg, and 



then only in comparatively small numbers." 



