A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



eastern Arctic, whilst the more beautiful light- 

 breasted birds hail from the north-western 

 coasts of the Atlantic. 



169. Canada Goose. Bernicla canadensis, 

 Pallas. 



There is little doubt that considerable flocks 

 of this splendid goose visited England and 

 Scotland during the winters of 1868-9, 

 although Mr. Howard Saunders is either 

 unaware of or does not accept this evidence 

 in his Manual of British Birds. Certainly 

 many stayed in Scotland and afterwards bred 

 on the waters of Loch Leven and have since 

 spread throughout the kingdom. Nowadays 

 many owners of lakes in Sussex keep these 

 fine birds, and as they nest freely their pro- 

 geny wander and are shot. A specimen in 

 my collection was shot at Pagham in 1885 

 and given to me by the late Mr. Henry 

 Seebohm. The Canada goose will, I hope, 

 be considered a bona fide British bird in the 

 near future. 



170. Whooper Swan. Cygnus tnusictis, Bech- 

 stein. 



A regular visitor in flocks during hard 

 winters. I found whoopers during the breed- 

 ing season in Iceland to be just as shy as 

 during the winter months on our coasts. 

 Whoopers have stayed the whole winter at 

 Knepp Castle lake, where they are always 

 protected. 



171. Bewick's Swan. Cygnus hewicki, Yar- 

 rell. 



A somewhat rare winter visitor, its appear- 

 ance being due to severe weather in the 

 north. 



172. Mute Swan. Cygnus lor (J. F. Gmelin). 

 As the old birds of this species drive off 



their young in the spring time from the sheets 

 of water where they intend to nest the mute 

 swan becomes generally distributed and is 

 now ranked as a wild bird. As many as fifty 

 swans, nearly all strangers, have been counted 

 of late years at Knepp, but not more than 

 three or four pairs stay to breed. Another 

 favourite swan resort is Warnham Pond. 



173. Sheld-duck. Tadorna cornuta (S. G. 

 Gmelin). 



This handsome duck does not now breed 

 on the Sussex coast ; it is only a somewhat 

 scarce winter visitor coming to us in small 

 parties. These are generally immatures. 



174. Ruddy Sheld-duck. Tadorna casarca 

 (Linn.) 



Of late years pinioned birds of this species 

 have bred in Sussex, so that recent examples 



of its capture in a wild state do not neces- 

 sarily mean genuinely wild birds. The 

 Sussex specimen now in the Booth Museum 

 and mentioned by Borrer as having been shot 

 at Harting September 3, 1890, may or may 

 not have been a wanderer from the south. 



175. Mallard. Anas hoscas, Linn. 

 Abundant in winter and resident in fair 



numbers. 



176. Gadwall. Anas strepera, Linn. 



A rare winter visitor; there is no record of 

 its having nested within the county. The 

 gadwall as well as the wigeon is an increasing 

 species on the inland waters during winter, 

 and we may yet hope at no distant date to see 

 this species together with the wigeon, the 

 pintail, the shoveler and the tufted duck all 

 nesting and resident on our inland lakes and 

 ponds, as they are now quite established in 

 parts of England and Scotland. 



177. Shoveler. Spatula clypeata (Linn.) 



A regular winter visitor, increasing in num- 

 bers every year. At present it is not known 

 to have nested in the county. 



178. Pintail. Dafila acuta (Linn.) 



A regular winter visitor to the coast in 

 October and remaining through the winter. 

 The pintail is a bird that only the professional 

 wildfowler sees much of. The birds remain 

 far out to sea during the hours of daylight 

 and only come at night to feed on the mud- 

 flats. My experience of the species is that it 

 is by far the shyest of the ducks, whether 

 diving or surface feeding. Even in the breed- 

 ing season in Iceland I have had no little 

 difficulty in shooting a couple of drakes. 



179. Teal. Nettion crecca (Linn.) 



The teal is resident and breeds in small 

 numbers throughout the county. In the 

 winter large numbers come in as early as 

 September and stay all the winter, frequently 

 remaining as late as April. 



180. Garganey. Qucrquedula circia (Linn.) 

 A rare summer visitor which has not been 



known to breed in the county. In nearly 

 every work on British birds this species is 

 referred to amongst the ducks which are in- 

 creasing in our islands. This is certainly not 

 my experience, for in Norfolk, where it for- 

 merly used to nest in some numbers, it now 

 barely holds its own ; so far as I could gather 

 from thoroughly reliable sources there were 

 only about thirteen nests discovered in the 

 whole of that county in the season of 1900. 

 Of late years however it has nested in Hamp- 

 shire, and it may form a new home there. 



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