The Zoologist— July, 1869. 1737 



in down from the cluck's breast : during Lis wife's absence the drake 

 occasionally associates with some tame ducks in the neighbouring 

 drains, and one day had a fight with their drake, getting, however, 

 well thrashed. Five pairs of mallard are this season breeding in our 

 marsh district. When the ducks are sitting the drakes flock together 

 and resort to the nearest water, — in this case the Humber. I am in- 

 formed that some few years since eleven drakes, probably representing 

 as many sitting ducks, came daily into the Ashby decoy. During a 

 visit lately made to this decoy, I was told that varieties of the common 

 wild duck are occasionally seen and taken : one duck with a white 

 throat has spent eight winters there ; and there is also a spotted duck 

 that has come in regularly for four or five years. The supposed 

 ruddy sheldrake (Zool. 9046) is, I find, merely a pale variety of the 

 female of A. boschas, and very similar to one captured on the Hum- 

 ber about the same time, and described by me in the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 

 9047). It is not surprising that varieties of the wild duck are thus 

 occasionally met with, since the wild birds associate with the tame on 

 our drains. Every year in the autumn hundreds of ducks are brought 

 over from Holland to Grimsby in the steamboats, many eventually 

 finding their way to the Lincolnshire farm-yards. It is impossible to 

 distinguish some of these foreigners from the wild A. boschas ; and 

 there are endless varieties, more or less resembling the wild breed. 

 These foreign birds fly nearly as well as their wilder brethren, and 

 will not unfrequently go off" altogether : I have heard of their being 

 shot on the Humber ; no wonder that occasional varieties are captured 

 in our Lincolnshire decoy. 



I recently observed a large dark-coloured round -winged hawk 

 hovering directly over my wild duck's nest : either duck or eggs must 

 inevitably have '•'come to grief" had it not been for the pertinacious 

 attack of the peewits. This hawk flew like an owl ; I think it was a 

 buzzai'd, but its red-coloured back was unlike that species. 



Guillemot, ^c. — April 27th. When off" Flamborough Head this 

 morning in a friend's yacht, returning from a cruise in the North Sea,, 

 we observed large numbers of guillemot, razorbills, and a few kitti- 

 wake gulls, but no puffin, — this species, as far as m yobservation goes, 

 not arriving on this coast before quite the end of April. Some scoters 

 and a redthroaled diver were also seen. The guillemots were mostly 

 in the summer plumage — some were in the dress of winter, and others 

 again in transition. The cry of this species heard at night is peculiar, 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. III. 2 K 



