80 ANATID-E. 



multitudes of them, and "beautiful exceedingly" they looked, 

 without a single dull-pluraaged female among them. 



Belfast Bay. — My few notes of the early and late appearance 

 of the species here are: — In the middle of August 1882, a few 

 were seen, and also at the end of the same month in 1839 : on 

 the 23rd of August, 181^0, a flock of twenty-eight appeared on 

 wing, proceeding in a southerly direction, and were supposed to 

 be on migration. So late as April 7 (1838), a flock of about 

 thirty was seen.'^ They sometimes frequent rocky islets in great 

 numbers late in autumn and in winter : on the 7th December, 

 1833, in particular, I remarked them in the afternoon, between 

 two and three o^ clock (three hours before high-water), covering 

 over such islets off Rockport. They probably resort thither as 

 the only safe places of refuge on land, when tired of the water. 

 They looked like Grallatores (see Curlew, Vol. II.) awaiting the fall- 

 ing of the tide and consequent uncovering of their feeding banks.f 

 The period already noticed, when so many mallards appeared in 

 tliis bay, was in very severe weather ; but in the mild winters of 

 1843-44 and 1844-45, both ducks and mallards associated to- 

 gether (they do not mix much with other species) were very 



* At Ballydrain lake a greater number were observed about the same date in 

 1849. On the 31st March, 1843, the wild ducks from the lake at Lurgan House, 

 county of Armagh, had not betaken themselves to their breeding haunts, as numbers 

 of them (many more than would breed there) sprang in pairs as we walked around 

 its banks. 



t " Two small islands on the south coast of the county of Wexford, called the 

 Keroes, about a mile from the shore, are, in the winter season, the daily resort of 

 immense flocks of Anatida. These birds lie on and around the islands during the 

 day, and at nightfall resort to the maiuland, over which they spread themselves in 

 all suitable localities. On these flights they fly at a considerable height, and are fre- 

 quently shot by fowlers, who wait for them on hiU-tops which lie in their course. 

 They arrive at the islands about the first grey of the morning, and remain in the 

 vicinity during the day. If the weather be very fine, and the sea calm, they lie 

 much of the day on the water and between the islands. Duck, teal, and wigeon 

 form the bulk of these flocks. The first that arrive in the morning are most vigilant, 

 and least easily approached. A small salt-water pond among the rocks is nearly ex- 

 clusively occupied by teal, which often lie on it in numbers. 



" I observed a common tame duck, while washing and cleaning its feathers, fre- 

 quently sipping up a little water at intervals, as if for the purpose of assisting in the 

 operation, possibly by diluting the fluid of its gland. AVhen it had moistened its 

 bill with a fresh supply of water, it took the feathers sepai'ately, and di-ew them 

 through that organ, champing them diligently until it had brought them to a satis- 

 factory condition." — Mr. Joseph Poole. 



