182 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



latter end of the year, and now and then upon our 

 Brooks ; particularly Harper's Brook by Great Oakly." 

 I must say that although our old naturalist mentions 

 the Tea] in another place, and particularly tells us 

 that the birds of his list " are all that I can fitly 

 mention here as more uncommon Birds," I am inclined 

 to look with some doubt on his accuracy of identi- 

 fication in some of the supposed occurrences of the 

 Garganey, for this species is not " the smallest of the 

 Duck-kind," but is considerbly larger than the Teal, 

 and very rarely remains in England till " the latter 

 end of the year." At all events the Garganey is 

 now anything but a common visitor to our county, 

 and my records of its appearance are few and far 

 between. 



Captain J. A. M. Yipan informs me that one of 

 these birds was killed at Stibbington on March 30, 

 1870, and I have seen an adult male stufi"ed at 

 Thrapston that was shot near that place in April of 

 the same year. I was told that this bird had several 

 companions of its own species at the time of its 

 capture, and that others of the flock had fallen to the 

 gun, but I was unable to verifiy this part of the story ; 

 one of our gamekeepers, however, assured me that 

 he saw a small lot of what he called curious-looking 

 Teal at some little distance below Thrapston in the 

 month last named. Two Garganeys were seen, and 

 an adult male secured on Naseby Reservoir on 

 April 11, 1883 ; this bird was stuffed by J. Shaw of 

 Shrewsbury, and formed part of the collection of 

 Mr. G. Ashby Ashby, to whom I am indebted for this 

 and other notes on the birds of the Naseby district. A 

 solitary male Garganey dropped into our decoy on 

 April 2, 1888, and left it the same evening. Lord 



