THE POCHAED, 131 



(except sand and gravel) did I find in the course of several years, 

 in a number of them dissected, from the beginning of December 

 to the end of March.^ The shell-fish noticed at p. 130 were 

 subsequently found. That Zostera is not a favourite food, is 

 evident from their predilection for fresh-water, in which it does 

 not grow, and even those killed in Belfast Bay do not contain 

 tliis plant like the brent geese and wigeon, in which we very 

 rarely find anything else. Soft green vegetable matter, and 

 seeds of various aquatic plants,t are the favourite food of the 

 pochard with us. It should be in the highest condition on these, 

 but justice, I fear, has not been done to its " flesh ^' here, the 

 market being regularly supplied with wild-fowl of well-known and 

 long-established character, as wild ducks, teal, wigeon, and brent 

 geese. It is, however, considered the best of the diving ducks. 



In an article on Walker's ' Original,' published in the ' Quar- 

 terly Review ' (vol. Iv.), there is a good deal said of the weight, 

 &c., of different kinds of game and other birds (p. 466). The 

 following information, which appears there, I could not resist 

 extracting : — 



" Tlie greatest novelty, perhaps, is the pochard, or dun-bird, a species of wild- 

 fowl, supposed to come from the Caspian Sea, and caught only in a single decoy 

 on the Misley Hall estate, Essex, in the month of January, in the coldest years. 

 The mildness of the season kept them away during the winters of 1833-1834 and 

 1834-1835 ; but a few have arrived within the last month (January 1836), and 

 were generally admired by those who had the good fortune to become acquainted 

 with them. Their flesh is exquisitely tender and delicate, and may almost be said 

 to melt in the mouth, like what is told of the celebrated canvas-back duck of 

 America ; but they have little of the common wild-duck flavour, and are best eaten 

 in their own gravy, which is plentifiJ, without either cayenne or lemon-juice. Their 

 size is about that of a fine wigeon." — p. 464. | 



A taxidermist has remarked to me that as the spring advances, 



* A shooter and bird-preserver, who has killed many of these birds in Belfast 

 Bay (generally in company wdth scaups, and sometimes with tufted ducks), states, 

 that the pochards ditfcred from the others in containiug vegetable matter, in 

 addition to minute moUusca, ou which alone the other species had fed. 



t Two pocliards, purchased in Belfast market (Nov. 11, 1848) had both crops 

 and gizzards entirely fiUed with oats. One (Jan. 1849) was wholly filled with 

 extremely minute seeds, excepting a few small frcsh-watcr bivalve shells of the genus 

 Pisidium. 



X Two mature females of the pncbard and scaup, shot in Belfast ]5ay at the end of 



K 2 



