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Borkum, and remained about a fortnight. It is occasionally found in Luxembourg ; and Baron 

 De Selys-Longchamps writes that it passes through Belgium in the spring, but its occurrences 

 are irregular. According to M. de Meezemaker it has once bred near Dunkerque. Degland 

 and Gerbe state that it occurs regularly in the northern departments of France in spring and 

 autumn, is accidental in those of the east and west, and passes regularly through the southern 

 departments. In Southern Spain, Major Irby informs us, " this species, in common with the 

 Marbled Duck and the Garganey, may be considered a summer Duck, and is the most abundant 

 of the three. They nest in the end of April in the Marisma, where I have shot them on the 

 1st of May, and once killed one as late as the 6th of December at Casa Viega, the only one I 

 saw so late in the season;" and Lord Lilford writes to us that " we met with this bird in small 

 numbers in the Cotos del Rey and de Dohana, in Andalucia, in the spring of 1869 and 1872. 

 In May of this year (1872) in the latter locality I found small parties of from three to seven on 

 almost every little lake or tarn. It is a Duck that loves shelter, and is seldom seen far out on 

 the open water, therefore all the easier to shoot. We obtained a nest of nine eggs, from which 

 I shot the female bird ; the nest was at a short distance from the water, amongst high rushes, 

 and was composed of dead dry water-plants, flags, &c, and lined with thick brownish white 

 down and a few white feathers. The people of the Coto de Dofiana called this Duck ' Negrete,' 

 and told me that it generally appeared there about the end of February, and disappeared in the 

 autumn, or, as they said, ' before the rains,' i. e. about the end of September, but that occasionally 

 a solitary individual was met with in winter." 



It occurs in Savoy during migration — and, according to Salvadori, winters in Italy, but does 

 not seem to remain there to breed. Mr. C. A. Wright states that it occurs rarely in Malta in 

 the winter ; in the Ionian Islands, however, it is a summer visitant, and comparatively rare in 

 the winter season. Lord Lilford writes that it " arrives generally in March in small numbers, 

 and breeds in Epirus and Albania. Occasionally seen in winter, but far from common at that 

 season." Mr. W. H. Hudleston observed it in Western Greece, and thinks that a few remain 

 there to breed. During the breeding-season it is to be met with in many parts of Southern 

 Germany, Hungary, and the Danubian Principalities. Dresser observed them on the islands on 

 the southern Danube at the commencement of the nesting-season in large numbers, and was told 

 that many breed there. Mr. Robson writes to us from Constantinople that it arrives in Asiatic 

 and European Turkey in the autumn, and remains there over the winter ; large numbers are shot 

 during the spring migration in March, when they are on their way northward ; for, Mr. Robson 

 informs us, none appear ever to remain there to breed. In Southern Russia and on the shores of 

 the Black Sea it is a common species, and is said to breed numerously on the Lower Volga. 

 Asia Minor is a country where this Duck winters ; and it is also to be met with during that 

 season in suitable localities in Northern Africa. Captain Shelley writes that " this Duck ranges 

 throughout Egypt and Nubia, but is most plentiful on the large lakes of the Fayoom and Lower 

 Egypt. On Birket el Korn I daily saw immense flocks of many thousands together far out on 

 the centre of the lake, which, when disturbed, rose with a running flight, striking the water 

 rapidly with their feet, and making a noise in so doing which could be distinctly heard at a 

 couple of miles' distance." 



According to Loche it is a common species in the three provinces of Algeria, and sedentary 



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