56 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



north and west, though rare, they are occasionally 

 procured. 



Throughout Ireland Shovellers may be met with 

 singly or in pairs from August to May, but they do 

 not collect in the small bunches of seven or eight 

 before alluded to till the middle of November. As 

 visitants they are too limited in numbers and dis- 

 persed in their occurrence to enable much to be 

 learnt about their migrations. 1 should say that 

 not a few seen and shot are home-bred birds. 



THE GADWALL (Anas strepera] might easily be 

 mistaken at first sight for a female Wild-duck, but 

 the patch of white near the centre of the closed 

 wing affords a good mark of distinction. It is a 

 freshwater-loving fowl, and delights in weeds and 

 rushes. On the first arrival of Gadwall they may 

 be seen to rest a few days on the estuaries ; they 

 then depart for inland waters. I once followed, 

 without success, a bunch of five, an adult male I 

 was anxious to procure, and four others. They 

 took flight after spending a couple of days on the 

 little creek first visited. A week later I found the 

 five birds (presumably the same) established on a 

 small lake some three miles from the sea. I was 

 fortunate in procuring the adult mallard and a 

 female, gladly sparing the others, which I took to be 

 another male and two females. I had great hopes 

 that these might remain to nest, as the thickly- 

 grown reedy mere they had chosen was on pri- 

 vate grounds. One of these was shot for a Wild- 

 cluck on a moonlight night, and the two others, 

 though afterwards seen, were either of the same 

 sex, or had no intention of nesting, for they 



