BIRDS 
close proximity to the Solway Firth. The 
first nest of the shoveler taken in the county 
was found on a salt marsh in May, 1886. 
The eight eggs which it contained were 
placed under a hen, and six hatched ; one 
young bird was feathering well when it met 
with an accident. The others died early. 
Two of the nestlings are in Tullie House. 
The attempt to rear young birds was repeated 
in 1887, but unsuccessfully. Two or three 
pairs have nested in the same district for the 
last fourteen years, but the species is not in- 
creasing, possibly because the young are so 
far from being shy, that they are generally 
shot on the salt marshes in early autumn, 
Nine eggs of the shoveler were taken in the 
usual locality in June, 1899; I placed them 
under a hen but they did not hatch, and were 
added to the Carlisle Museum. The nest in 
1899, as in other years, was merely a hollow 
in a tuft of coarse marsh grass and was placed 
in an exposed position, where it might have 
been trodden under foot by cattle. The 
home-bred birds, as already stated, frequent 
our marshes for a few weeks after their quills 
are strong, and then migrate. Their place 
is taken later by birds which appear to be 
genuine winter immigrants, which depart in 
February, while the breeding birds return to 
their favourite haunts in March and April. 
150. Pintail. Dafila acuta (Linn.). 
A winter visitant, chiefly met with on our 
salt marshes. Our wildfowlers meet with 
two or three pintail on the marshes nearly 
every winter ; but full-dressed birds are rarely 
seen before the month of December, and 
usually later. Immature birds occur in Octo- 
ber and November, but rarely make any pro- 
longed stay. They feed indifferently on the 
salt marshes and on mosses inland. I have 
seen a few immature birds which had been 
killed in the Eden valley, but have never my- 
self met with the pintail except on the marshes 
or at Monkhill Lough. 
151. Teal. 
Nettion crecca (Linn.). 
A resident which formerly bred commonly 
on the mosses inland and near the coast, but 
of recent years has been far less numerous in 
the nesting season, The young are very 
active little fellows, and are with difficulty 
caught, but they are easily reconciled to the 
loss of their liberty, as are adults also if judi- 
ciously treated. ‘They can seldom be induced 
to nest in confinement, though a pair of tame 
teal nested successfully on a small pond at 
Kirkbride. 
152. Garganey. Querquedula circia (Linn.). 
A rare spring or summer visitant. In 
March, 1895, a farmer shot a fine drake in a 
field near Silloth. Two pairs of garganey 
were seen near Carlisle in the spring of 1848, 
and three of the four birds were shot. Two 
drakes were killed at Tarn Wadling before it 
was drained. A male was shot near Carlisle 
in 1857, and a pretty drake was shot near 
Gilsland in the spring of 1882. On the 
15th of August, 1890, a man named Sharp 
shot an old hen garganey near Glasson. The 
specimen was secured by George Dawson. I 
examined it on the day after it was shot, and 
found that it had a very distinct hatching spot 
and the quills were much worn. Information 
reached me that this bird had been seen with 
a brood of young ones; there certainly was 
some reason to suppose that it had nested on 
one of the neighbouring mosses, but absolute 
proof was lacking. 
153. Wigeon. Mareca penelope (Linn.). 
Locally, Lough-Duck, Lough. 
A common winter visitant to our estuaries, 
abundant at Ravenglass all through the winter 
months, but most numerously represented on 
the Solway Firth in late winter and early 
spring, February being now the month in 
which the largest bags are made. During 
open weather a few wigeon frequent many 
of our inland waters ; indeed they are never 
absent from Monkhill and Thurstonfield 
loughs from October to March, except during 
a spell of severe frost, when they are forced to 
abandon their favourite freshwater haunts and 
betake themselves to the mud flats of the 
coast. Stragglers have been shot in August, 
and we expect a small number of birds, in- 
cluding both young specimens and old males 
in eclipse, to visit us in September. I have 
never been able to procure any proof of the 
wigeon breeding with us, but it is possible 
that a pair or two may occasionally do so. 
An adult male spent the summer of 1890 at 
Monkhill Lough, and from his unwillingness 
to leave the locality, for he was a fine full- 
winged drake, it was difficult to resist the in- 
ference that he had a mate nesting in the 
immediate vicinity. 
154. Pochard. Fuligula ferina (Linn.). 
A frequent visitant to the English lakes, 
chiefly in the autumn and winter months, but 
not exclusively so. That it occasionally nests 
with us is almost certain. I saw a pair of old 
pochards at Monkhill on the 12th of August, 
and found a party of immature birds at 
Thurstonfield a few days later. In July, 
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