OCCASIONAL NOTES. Sil 
light-coloured patch on the back between the shoulders. ‘They were very 
wary, and would not permit us to approach sufficiently close to identify them. 
Idid not again see them until the 18th of April, when I observed them 
diving for food in the channel just opposite Moyview. They had a habit 
of retiring at low water to the lonely part of the channel near the bay to rest 
on the sand, and then, with the rising tide, returning to feed between Moy- 
view and Castleconnor, and occasionally higher up the river, within a mile 
or two of Ballina. Until the 12th of May I was unable to satisfy myself as 
to what they really were; but on that day I obtained a close view of them 
from behind a wall at Killanly, while they were diving close to the shore, 
and I was then pretty sure that they were Eiders, a species which I had never 
met with here before. Being seldom on the water after the latter date, 
I did not see anything of these ducks until the month of July, when I 
observed one of them flying down the channel near Bartragh, and the salmon 
fishermen, to whom it was well known as the “ big duck,” told me they had 
remarked only one bird frequenting the river all the season, its companion 
having disappeared shortly after I had seen the pair together on the 12th of 
May. Early in September I saw the single bird again near Moy Fort, 
within a few hundred yards of the Shipping Quay; and on the 6th of 
October, as I was returning home from Ballina, I observed it swimming up 
a small bay ending in a narrow marshy creek near Killanly. It being a very 
high spring-tide, the creek was completely filled up to the mouth of the little 
stream, and if the duck got up the narrow part between the banks, it would 
be concealed from view of the road, and would probably rest there, for some 
time at least, while the tide was high. Being determined, if possible, to 
obtain this bird, having already failed so often in doing so, I hastened home 
for my boat; but as all the men were employed on a distant part of the farm 
I had no one to row. Not to lose a chance, therefore, two young ladies 
accompanied me in the boat, and we rowed up the little bay. We saw 
nothing of the bird until we got nearly to the head of the creek, when he 
appeared swimming down between the rushy banks. Before coming within 
shot, however, he dived, passing right under the boat, and did not show 
himself until outside of us, when he dived again, so quickly after rising to 
the surface that I found it extremely difficult to shoot him. However, after 
asmart and most exciting chase of nearly a quarter of a mile, he became 
rather blown, and being unable to dive so quickly as at first, I got a fair 
shot and knocked him over, not at all too soon, for my crew were getting 
exhausted. It proved to be an immature male Hider, and when presenting 
it to the Royal Dublin Society’s Museum, I asked the taxidermist to ascer- 
tain whether there were any old wounds such as would account for the bird 
not migrating to its usual summer haunts. He afterwards assured me he 
had discovered no trace whatever of any wound beyond the recent shot-marks, 
and that the bird was in first-rate condition. In the month of December 
