HO BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



seen on the south-western estuaries in numbers from a dozen to a thousand, and 

 once, after a gale, he saw five thousand together. 



A considerable number of Pochards remain to nest in the British Islands. In 

 the Orkneys there is strong presumptive evidence (" A Fauna of the Orkney Isles," 

 J. A. Harvie-Brown and T. E. Buckley) that it nests annually on Loch Skaill, and 

 probably on other lochs in the neighbourhood as well, while in 1896 the nest 

 was found at Hoy ; also in Fifeshire. It is reputed as nesting in several 

 localities in the Tongue district ; also in Loch Spynie, St. John's old hunting 

 ground. On May 2Oth, in 1876, the writer saw several in the shallows of Loch 

 Oich, in Inverness. Some years since, in June, Mr. Abel Chapman and his brother 

 saw at least a dozen Pochards (mostly adult drakes) on a small lough on the 

 Scottish side of the Border, under circumstances which left no doubt they were 

 breeding. 



In England, I have no doubt, it has nested on the Northumberland lakes, some 

 which I have visited are admirably adapted for its habits, densely fringed with 

 reed beds and very quiet, being strictly preserved. Formerly it nested in the 

 mere at Scarborough. In 1881 about fifty pair were nesting on Hornsea mere, 

 in Holderness ; and in recent years it has, to my knowledge, nested in two, if not 

 three, localities in North Lincolnshire. It breeds also fairly plentifully in Norfolk, 

 and in Hertfordshire at the Tring reservoirs. Although common on the lakes of 

 Nottinghamshire in the winter, I was never able to ascertain that it had remained 

 to nest. 



In Ireland Sir R. Payne-Gallwey gives an instance of its breeding on Lough 

 Derg, in 1880. Probably also it nests regularly in other localities in some of 

 those weed-grown loughs with which the country abounds, and which are so rarely 

 visited by any having a knowledge of ornithology in the summer months. 



Beyond the British Islands its geographical nesting range extends from Den- 

 mark and Holland across Europe and Asia to Lake Baikal. It has not been 

 recognized as nesting in Iceland, though one was shot some years since on Thingvalla 

 lake in the middle of June. Professor Collett does not include it amongst the 

 breeding birds of Norway, and classes it only as a very rare visitor to that country. 

 In the middle of August, 1896, the writer saw an adult male, which had partly 

 recovered his full plumage, close to the steam-boat when passing through a narrow 

 sound on the Norwegian coast, a little south of the Arctic circle. 



Mr. E. Hartert says this species is not uncommon on passage in East Prussia, 

 and breeds on some of the lakes. In Russia it nests as far north as Lake Ladoga, 

 and it has occurred near Archangel in summer. In Central Europe it is found in 

 Slavonia and Hungary, breeding in some numbers on the Obedska Bara ; common 



