The Tufted Duck in Scotland. 153 
that there were, if I remember right, two or three full- 
winged birds flying about when the place was sold in 1863 
to Dhuleep Singh. Such birds, if they wanted to breed, 
would naturally find the Stanford and Tomston waters much 
more to their liking than the Elveden horse-pond, and I 
could well imagine their settling “down to such excellent 
accommodation.” Further, Professor Newton says, that, at 
the present time, the Tufted Duck is far more abundant 
than the Pochard, although the latter began nesting there 
before it, and “availed itself of the Wild Fowl Act by at 
once becoming numerous.” 
Coming to Ireland. Thompson, writing in 1851, tells us 
it is rare in the north-west of Donegal, and “its scarcity in 
the south-west of Ireland accords with what we find to be 
the case in the south-west of England.” But “Tufted Ducks 
are sent in quantity from various inland localities to Dublin 
market. . . . Along the eastern coast in particular they 
are numerous, two hundred having been seen in company in 
Carlingford Bay; in the bays of Drogheda and Dublin and 
in Wexford Harbour they are common. . .. . It is 
common on lakes in Mayo.” But, “in Kerry, the Tufted 
Duck was unknown to Mr T. F. Neligan in 1837,” and but 
one bird had been recorded up to December 1849. 
Now, in the north of Ireland, by Thompson’s notes it 
would appear that it was a winter visitor, in the time of his 
observations, to Belfast Bay, and the latest of all the Fuligule 
to arrive, the date of their first arrival in 1839 and 1840, 
being considered early even in the month of December, but 
they are said to arrive earlier on fresh water—and to have 
been brought to him from the middle of November to April 
from Lough Neagh; and, he adds, “I have known them to 
remain there until May, on the 4th of which I saw one in 
1856.” It is not spoken of definitely as a breeding species, 
but it was supposed it may have nested once on Louch 
Neagh, as a fine male was brought to him thence on 17th 
June 1834. “It is the most common species of duck during 
winter, and remains until a late period of the spring in 
the little inland lakes of the County Armagh” (“Natural 
History of Ireland: Birds,” vol. iii., p. 141 et seq.) 
