BUFF. 189 



Thomas Allis writes that he has known of others. In 

 Somersetshire they formerly occurred in the fens near Bridge- 

 water. In Cambridgeshire, they used to frequent, though much 

 more plentifully some years than others, the Isle of Ely, and 

 occasionally the Bottisham and Swaffham Fens. In Surrey, 

 a considerable flight of these birds, apparently all of them 

 young ones, was found near Godalming, on the 20th. of 

 August, 1836. 



They occasionally visit Ireland. Two males and two females 

 were procured at Kildare. 



In Scotland, stragglers have not unfrequently been met with. 

 Sir William Jardine has obtained specimens on the shores of 

 the Forth, from Holy Island, northwards, and also on the 

 Pentland Hills, and the banks of the Solway. In Orkney they 

 have been observed. There they have generally made their 

 appearance about September. They were very abundant in 

 Sanday, in the month of September, in 1830, 1835, and 1837. 



The fens have heretofore afforded their favourite locality, but 

 they have also been met with upon the moors, and on mosses, 

 and in salt marshes, and still more frequently along the coast, 

 on their passage to and fro. 



They arrive, or used to arrive, in April, and leave in 

 September, many thus staying the summer and rearing their 

 young, Some indeed have done so recently, at Cawlish Wash, 

 near Spalding, in Lincolnshire, in which county, other localities 

 used to be the fens near Boston and Spilsby, and the neigh- 

 bourhood of Crowlarid. A few have been found occasionally 

 in the winter; one near Slapton, in Devonshire, on the 27th. 

 of December, 1808. 



The young are fully fledged by the end of August, and 

 assemble in August or September, to depart in company with 

 the old females, the males leaving by themselves a few days 

 sooner. 



These birds are excellent eating, and are easily fattened in 

 confinement for the purpose. Great numbers were formerly 

 taken in nets in the fens, for the table, in the month of 

 September; but there are now but few to be found, from this 

 and other causes. A fen-man told Pennant that he had caught 

 six dozen in one morning; and ten dozen were sent in the 

 same day to Leadenhall market, in the year 1824. The 

 catching of them was a regular business, though confined only 

 to a few families. One family, that of Towns, had been in 

 the trade a hundred years in the time of Montagu. The 



