The Zoologist — March, 18G7. 623 



hen. Knowing that the name of " scale duck" is also applied to the 

 shell duck (Anas tadorna), I anxiously inquired what the bird was 

 like " Oh, it's a very pretty bird, with the bill all jaggit-like," was the 

 reply. This showed we were on the right scent, and we walked back 

 to Comber in excellent spirits, promising to be back in Ardmillan at 

 six the following morning. 



Considering the distance we had to walk, we arrived at Ardmillan 

 with tolerable punctuality ; the fisherman's two sons got the boat 

 round, and we embarked with a dog, a sort of small water spaniel he 

 seemed to me, though the boys said his mother was a terrier. 

 Anyhow, he was a capital water-dog, and altogether a most valuable 

 ally, for without him, as the lads truly observed, we should have done 

 next to nothing. The first low island that we visited was Rawleigh, 

 and for some time we hunted through the briers which grew along the 

 shore, "Pilot" rummaging every bush indefatigably, but without 

 success. We were just going to return to the boat and try another 

 cover, when a sudden " yap, yap" was heard, and out of the line of 

 brier at the foot of an old stone wall scurried a female merganser holly 

 pursued by Pilot, who followed her in the water until recalled. We 

 hastened up to the spot, and there, an arm's length in a mass of ivy 

 and brier, was the. nest with ten eggs. These we secured, along with 

 the down lining of the nest; the lining was merely placed round the 

 sides, the bottom of the nest consisting of pieces of stick and dried 

 brier. The bird swam up aud down within thirty yards whilst her 

 household was being broken up, but the male bird kept a long way 

 off. Island Mahee was drawn blank, but we were more fortunate at 

 the one next visited, for soon Pilot came to a dead point, and barked 

 to draw our attention to a bush containing another nest with eight 

 eggs : these were scarcely secured ere the dog marked another with 

 only three, but very rich buff-coloured eggs. We next visited a long 

 low island where the terns and ring dotterel breed, but the former had 

 not yet began to lay, and only a few pairs were hovering over our 

 heads ; I examined them with a powerful glass and they were 

 undoubtedly Sterna hirundo. Of the ring dotterel there were two 

 pairs, one of which displayed a strong desire to attract the dog's 

 attention from a strip of beach, fluttering and skimming right under 

 his nose, as a lapwing will do, but Pilot showed the utmost indifference 

 to such artifices, and quartered his ground with the greatest 

 equanimity ; he did not, however, find the eggs, which had, I think, 

 been taken that morning by another party : the island was also a 



