146 ANATID.^. 



seen together on very small sheets of water.^ They are called 

 white-sided divers there, and considered very bad for the table ; — 

 being sold as wigeon,, they bring this excellent bird into bad re- 

 pute. t Tufted ducks are sent in quantity from various inland 

 localities to Dublin market, and have been obtained about Clon- 

 mel.J Along the eastern coast in particular, they are numerous ; 

 two hundred having been seen in company in Carlingford Bay ; 

 in the bays of Drogheda and Dublin, and in Wexford harbour, § 

 they are common ; are obtained in the harbours of Waterford 

 and Cork, and on other parts of the coast, but apparently become 

 more rare westward. In Kerry, the tufted duck was unknown 

 to Mr. T. F. Neligan in 1837 ; and but one bird obtained there 

 — (at Rossbegh, Dingle Bay) — had been seen by Mr. R. Chute 

 until December 1849. It is common on lakes in Mayo.jj Its 

 scarcity in the south-west of Ireland accords with what we find to 

 be the case in the south-west of England. The Rev. George 

 Robinson informs me that, during four years' residence at Ply- 

 mouth, he never saw one either in the market or in a wild 

 state, but that he had known of two or three having been killed 

 there within that time. Its frequency in Dublin, where he resided 

 for the three follo^\^ng years, was therefore quite striking, as the 

 tufted duck is very commonly brought to the market there during 

 winter. In Couch's ' Cornish Fauna,' this species is set down as 

 " scarce/' but in the south-east of England, as in the same part 

 of Ireland, it is common, being "almost as abundant as the 

 scaup" in Sussex.*[[ 



It is said to visit Orkney every winter, but does not appear in 

 Mr. St. John's list of the 'Birds of Sutherland.' During the 

 month of January 1849, I remarked a few of these birds (some 



* Rev. Geo. Robinson. 



t Mr. Yarrell, on the contrary, remarks that, unlike the scaup, " its flesh is 

 generally excellent, so much so, that from its goodness this bird is sometimes called 

 the black wigeon." 



% ISIr. R. Davis, juu., who Las also procured the species from Dungarvan, on the 

 coast of Waterford. 



§ Called gold-eye duck, here, by the shooters (J. Poole). 



II Mr. R. J. Montgomeiy. ^ Knox, ' Birds of Sussex.' 



