396 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Sutherlandshire, June 20th, were the earliest observed in Great 

 Britain, and they appear to have stayed in the neighbourhood 

 until the first week in July ; so that, if this statement is correct, 

 they must have been entirely distinct from the Irish birds. 



The Suffolk flock of eight comes next on the list, July 5th, 

 and it is a curious fact that a flock of five were seen in Elginshire 

 on the following day, suggesting, as it does, that the Suffolk birds 

 might have coasted north without resting till they reached the 

 mouth of the Findhorn. Be this as it may, I could not learn, 

 after making careful inquiries, that any Sheldrakes were seen at 

 this time in Norfolk (J. H. Gurney), Lincolnshire (J. Cordeaux), 

 or Yorkshire (J. Cordeaux, T. H. Nelson). On the other hand, 

 it is quite possible that the Findhorn birds may have been a part 

 of those previously seen in Sutherlandshire ; but it is rather 

 remarkable that the Suffolk flock, consisting of five uninjured 

 birds, should have disappeared as entirely as they did. 



The only other English records are the Lincolnshire and 

 Norfolk specimens, both shot in September, and seeming to indi- 

 cate that what Sheldrakes were left were then working their way 

 south towards their winter quarters. 



The total number of specimens given in this list is sixteen, 

 but three of these were thrown away and destroyed, viz., two birds 

 at Skerries, Co. Dublin, and the Solway specimen. This latter 

 was exhumed, by the energy of the Kev. H. A. Macpherson, from 

 its unsavoury resting-place, and the remains, though useless for 

 preservation, served to identify it beyond question, and give the 

 Ruddy Sheldrake a place in the county fauna. Of the sixteen 

 specimens the sexes were ascertained in ten cases — four males 

 and six females. 



It is more than likely that this list is not a complete one. I 

 may have omitted some of the published records, despite some 

 care to the contrary ; while it is almost certain that all the speci- 

 mens obtained have not been recorded in print, some being thrown 

 away at the time they were shot, as being in " poor feather " and 

 useless, and others preserved in out-of-the-way farmhouses, and 

 no mention made of them even in the local papers. 



It still remains to point out briefly those facts which favour 

 the supposition that these Ruddy Sheldrakes were genuine wild 

 birds. The chief argument against their being wild is the un- 

 doubted rarity of this duck in northern Europe, coupled with the 



