450 APPENDIX. 



week or two, and always joined the flock when they came to the lake 

 in the afternoon, swam about and fed with them, and when the main 

 body went off at daybreak, they returned to their hiding-place among 

 the reeds in the middle of the water. At last I went out on a door, 

 as no boat could be had, and captured them ; one was a bean and the 

 other a white-fronted goose, yet they always kept company after being 

 wounded, until taken. 



" The ducks which are most numerous in Mayo are the common wild 

 duck (called ' heavy duck '), golden-eye, wigeon, tufted duck, and 

 teal, all in immense numbers, particidarly the last, which, on Lough 

 Corrib, is literally in thousands. 



" Wild ducks, before I came away on the 1st of April, were breeding 

 in the ivy on old castles, fully fifty feet from the ground. In the castle 

 of Turin, upwards of eighty feet in height, and covered with most luxu- 

 riant ivy, these ducks bring out their young every summer at a great 

 height. This castle is three miles from any piece of water, but not 

 more than a gun-shot from a very extensive and wet bog. The abbey 

 of Ross, another haunt, is close to a river and wet bog, and in the ivy 

 on two castles near to it they also build. The shelldi'ake breeds at 

 Lough Corrib, and 1 believe a few pair of the red-breasted mergansers 

 do so. The fowlers positively state that at a part of this lake, most 

 strictly preserved diiring the life-time of the proprietor (one or two 

 years deceased), the wigeon bred." 



Wild Duck, vol. iii. p. 75. 



It was omitted to be stated in the account of this bird, that it fre- 

 quently breeds on the ground in marine localities, such as the Mew 

 Island and the islets in Strangford Lough, or anywhere on the borders 

 of the sea-coast where it will be free fi'om disturbance. 



Wigeon, vol. iii. p. 98. 



Mr. R. J. Montgomery, writing in September 1850, mentions that 

 an observant man (O'Neill), in the coast guard service, states that he 

 knew wigeon to breed in the island of Achil, where he was stationed 

 for several years. 



Velvet Scoter, vol. iii. p. 132. 



About the first week of September 1850, three of these ducks were 

 seen in the Bay of Drogheda, by Mr. R. J. Montgomery. This is the 



