256 THE ZOOLOGIST, 
I would paddle up (in a flat-bottomed boat) as if going past, then circle 
round and round. If the old drake was there I used to try first to get a 
shot at him, for after the first shot he was not approachable if he was wild. 
I used to edge in towards the brood, for if I followed him too far I found, 
when he had flown off, that the others had disappeared in some mysterious 
way. Having failed to get a shot at him, I would turn my attention to the 
duck and young. I seldom shot the old duck; I suppose I was tempted 
by the “brown” of the flock. The old duck, on finding me approaching, 
would swim off, followed by the clutch. As I pressed them they would go 
faster and faster, until they would be almost standing or running on the 
water; if I did not take a shot then, the result of being hurried in this 
way was that the old bird would flap or fly off quite low in a circle or 
semicircle round the boat; at the same moment the young would make a 
rush, some dive, others flap away. I have known one to go to the shore in 
this way seven or eight hundred yards, in which case I would not get 
another chance at the flock for the rest of that day, and the odds were that 
I would not bag two at the most after this, as each bird would take a 
different direction, and the only one to be seen was the old duck, about a 
hundred and fifty yards off, in a very restless and excited state. I always 
found these birds on Lough Beg, a lough one mile north of Lough Neagh. 
These broods of Pochards used to be far more numerous than they are now. 
The last time I was there, in August, 1878, I shot, on the 8th and 12th, 
some young Pochards which could fly about two hundred yards. There 
was only one brood that I could find that year. Iam sorry that I cannot 
give other dates, but know that it was in July—after the 20th, and before 
August 20th—that I used to have this shooting. I have shot the Scaup at 
the end of August, but they were always able to fly at this time of the year, 
and in flocks of from six to eight or ten usually. I have seen the Tufted 
Duck remain paired, but have never shot the young before September, so far 
as I can recollect, though I have seen the old drakes about by themselves 
in the summer. On one occasion I caught an old dark Tufted Duck that 
got carried over a fall in the Bann, between Lough Neagh and Lough Beg; 
it was moulting and could not fly, but seemed well enough, judging from the 
chase it gave before I got it into my landing-net. ‘They may breed, but 
I am sure that the Pochard does, and hope some day to procure eggs. 
I believe the Scaup breeds in Lough Neagh, but not on Lough Beg. I will 
keep the skins of the next young Pochards I obtain, so as to prove my 
statement. Though I am quite satisfied myself, I know other ornithologists 
would like more substantial proof. I heard of the case referred to by Mr. 
Gatcombe, and said at the time that I thought it was nothing strange, 
particularly at that date—H. L. Cox (Army Medical Department). 
GreENXN WooppeckER IN Somerset.—In the April number (pp. 140, 
141) the Editor suggests that the fact of so large a number of Green 
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