Wild Ducks 41 



local newspaper, "a wigeon has nested this summer near 

 Shrewsbury," and if this were authentic, the two events 

 might have had some connection with each other ; but for 

 these birds to be found nesting so far south would be quite 

 contrary to their usual habits. 



The Wild Duck is Hwyad wyllt here, and the Pochard 

 becomes Hwyad hengoch, or red-headed duck ; the Tufted 

 Duck Hwyad gopog. One or two pairs of each of the latter 

 species remained to breed on the lake in 1906 : the greater 

 number having taken their departure towards the end of 

 March. I saw five or six young Pochards with their mother 

 off the mouth of the Llafar on 8th June 1905 ; and on 

 26th June 1906, three male Tufted Ducks and one Pochard 

 were swimming together near Llangowr, their mates being 

 no doubt sitting on eggs somewhere amongst the herbage at 

 the head of the lake. Up to about the middle of May 

 1 905, a male Tufted Duck and a female Pochard were fre- 

 quently seen in company, as though they had paired, and I 

 had some reason to believe they had done so, but after that 

 date they were not noticed together. There were two 

 pairs of Tufted Ducks on the lake at the time, but no male 

 Pochard was ever visible to my glasses, though the water was 

 often enough scanned. As just mentioned, a female Pochard 

 with her young brood was seen on 8th June, but they were 

 not noticed subsequently ; and though some Tufted Ducks 

 were hatched, I do not think that any young of either species 

 were brought to maturity that season. Both feed so con- 

 spicuously on open water during the day, that it is improb- 

 able that, had they lived, they would have altogether 

 escaped my scrutiny. It only remains to add that the Tufted 

 Ducks, having lost their eggs or young, were constantly 

 seen together in a little flock of five three males and two 

 females up till the end of the summer, but that the Pochard 

 disappeared from my ken. Hybrids between the two 

 species, reared both in semi-domestication and in a wild 

 state, have from time to time been recorded, so that their 

 inter-breeding here, had it been more fully established, 

 would not have been unique, but all such lapses, under 

 natural conditions, are very exceptional. 



