NOTES. 95 



INLAND NESTING OF THE SHELD-DUCK, AND 



NESTING OF POCHARD, SHOVELER AND TEAL 



IN LINCOLNSHIRE. 



In answer to Mr. Southwell's question about the Sheld-Ducks 

 on Twig Moor, Lincolnshire {supra, p. 62), I may say with 

 confidence that the birds breed there. On May 22nd, 1907, 

 I saw five or six pairs there, evidently breeding ; and again 

 on June 2nd, 1908, several birds were on the ponds, and a 

 brood of ducklings had just been hatched off. The Sheld-Duck 

 has also nested on the Gull-ponds on Scotton Common, six 

 miles south-west of Twig Moor, and a pair or two perhaps do 

 so every year. I have seen young in all stages there, and on 

 June 22nd, 1903, there was a brood only a few days old, some 

 of which I managed to catch in my hands, but quickly released. 

 This species is very common on the Somerset coast, near 

 Burnham and Weston-super-Mare ; in winter I have seen 

 more than five hundred on the sea in one flock, and hundreds 

 nest among the sand dunes in the neighbourhood. The water- 

 bailiff of Blagdon Reservoir, about ten miles from the 

 Somerset coast, states that a pair remained to nest there a 

 few years ago. He is a most intelligent observer, and is not 

 Hkely to have been mistaken. I may mention also that 

 several pairs of Pochards breed on the Twig Moor Gull-ponds, 

 and I saw quite young broods both in 1907 and 1908. A 

 good number of Teal and Shovelers breed on Scotton Common, 

 a fact which I can state from personal observation, having 

 found their nests and seen their young broods there on several 

 occasions during the last few years. 



F. L. Blathwayt. 



[Mr. Clifford Borrer has also written to us to the same effect 

 as the above. — Eds.] 



NESTING OF THE SHOVELER IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Early in April, 1908, Mr. R. C. Thomas, of Bloxwich, told 

 me that some Shovelers {Spatula clypeata) (at first two 

 drakes and a duck) were on a " swag " — a piece of water 

 formed by subsidence of land caused by mining operations — 

 at one of their collieries. The one on which the Shovelers 

 were seen is about an acre in extent, and is adjacent to a 

 coal-pit, which is not now worked. On May 12th Mr. Thomas 

 found the nest, which then contained six eggs, built in a 

 depression, about fifty yards from the " swag." When on 

 the nest the duck drew towards herself the tall grasses gromng 

 near, and thus formed a kind of canopy, a small opening being 

 left at the side nearest the water. There is a footpath near, 



