BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 167 



x the Humber. Small flocks, or, rather, family parties, 

 generally appear on our ponds and streams very 

 early in the autumn (in September), the main body 

 arriving later in the season (in November) . 



It is particularly a river Duck, resting or sleeping 

 on the water off the coast during the daytime. In 

 the evening, when the tide permits, they are all 

 activity, resorting in large bodies to the Zostera beds 

 on the mud-flats. 



Although much more numerous in this district 

 than either the Wild Duck or the Teal, it is far less 

 frequently met with on our freshwater drains and 

 ponds. This is particularly apparent when we refer 

 to the Ashby decoy book ; for, whereas in thirty-five 

 years 93,232 Ducks and Teal were captured in the 

 nets, during the same period only 2019 Wigeons 

 were taken *. 



A large proportion of the Wigeon visiting the 

 Humber in winter are males. This I have ascer- 

 tained by a frequent use of the telescope, as well as 

 from the fact that a much larger proportion of males 

 than females fall to the guns of our coast shooters. 

 Mr. Boulton (Zoologist, 1865, p. 9528) remarks, 



* The reverse appears to be the case in the south of England ; 

 for Colonel Montagu says : u More are caught in the decoys of 

 Somersetshire and Devonshire than Duck, Teal, and all other 

 wild fowl collectively, as we are assured by an old and experi- 

 enced decoy-man. The same person asserts that Wigeon and 

 Teal rarely assemble together in the pool, nor frequently with 

 Duck; but when Ducks come to the pool, Teal frequently follow." 



