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frequently met with both on the east and the west coasts. It is included in Mr. Don's list of the 

 Birds of Forfarshire, where it had been seen by that accurate observer on the lakes of Rescobie 

 and Balgavies, showing that for nearly half a century it must have been greatly overlooked ; and 

 the species was also recorded by the late Mr. Sinclair, of Wick, in his list of Caithness birds, 

 published upwards of thirty years ago. In the west of Scotland the Gadwall is probably not 

 unfrequent, as it is occasionally sent, among other wild fowl, to the poulterers' shops in Glasgow 

 from the west-country shootings. Mr. Elwes has informed me that it is a rare winter visitor tto 

 Islay. In the outer islands it has also occurred several times : one, a male, was shot at Barra in 

 the autumn of 1863 ; and two specimens, male and female, were shot by Dr. Macrury in Benbecula, 

 in March 1864, within fourteen days of each other. Besides these, Dr. Macrury has informed 

 me that he saw a flock of twelve Gadwalls on a loch in the island of Barra in 1868. On the 

 east coast it has been killed on the Tay, and likewise on the Forth, in Aberdeenshire, Forfar- 

 shire, Perthshire, and East Lothian. The Earl of Haddington has informed me that in the last- 

 named county he shot a specimen, in immature plumage, at Tyninghame, and that about the 

 same time a pair, male and female, were shot in the river Spey, and taken to Mr. Small, bird- 

 stuffer, Edinburgh, for preservation. In Orkney, according to Messrs. Baikie and Heddle, it has 

 at times been killed in Sanday, but is not a regular visitant." In Ireland it is, according to 

 Thompson, a rare bird ; but he gives several instances of its capture in that country. 



It has been recorded from Iceland, where it breeds. Mr. Proctor obtained a nest, containing 

 five eggs, near Myvatn ; and Professor A. Newton, in a letter to ' The Ibis,' writes : — " In the 

 first place let me mention that Mr. G. G. Fowler informs me that in 1862 he shot a female 

 Gadwall {Anas strepera) at Myvatn as she rose from her eggs, two in number ; and the day after 

 he killed a fine drake near the same spot. I also learn from Mr. Proctor that he has once or 

 twice received skins of this bird direct from Iceland. As the testimony in each case is indubitable, 

 the species must no longer be subject to suspicion." 



In Scandinavia it is a rare bird, according to Mr. Collett not occurring in Norway, though 

 Schrader, doubtless in error, recorded it as breeding in Lapland. " But little was known," writes 

 Mr. C. R. Sundstrom to me, " of the occurrence of this species in Scandinavia until the last few 

 years. Nilsson writes that it is seldom seen in Southern and Central Sweden, in Skane, on 

 Gottland, and at Gothenburg, and never in Northern Sweden or Norway ; but in a note he men- 

 tions that, according to Schrader, it breeds rarely in Lapland. Beyond this nothing was known 

 respecting the range of this species in Sweden. In May 1864, however, a pair were offered for 

 sale in the market at Stockholm, of which the male was stuffed, and is now in the Vetenskaps 

 Akademiens Museum. In 1866, in the month of May, Mr. Meves met with several pairs in the 

 Hjelsta-vik, a bay stretching northwards into Upland from the lake Malare; and on June 3rd he 

 shot a male, and saw over twenty pairs ; so that it is now quite certain that this Duck breeds in 

 Sweden. Since then females, eggs, and young birds have been procured from Hjelsta-vik, where, 

 in 1869, at least from forty to fifty pairs bred. The reason why the Gadwall has so long been 

 unobserved in our country is because the female and young so closely resemble those of the 

 Mallard ; but when once the fact that the female has a white speculum, which is visible when the 

 bird is on the wing, became known, and her somewhat higher-pitched call-note, uttered once or 

 twice in succession, distinguished, it was easy to know the female of this Duck from the female 



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