BIRD NOTES FROM CHESHIRE. 171 



C. Oldham found it near the same spot ; it was about three 

 yards away from him when it rose. This time, after flapping 

 across the reeds, it gathered up its legs behind it, drew in its 

 neck, and crossed the mere, flying like a Heron. When the 

 hounds met at Marbury on Feb. 14th they drew the reed -bed, 

 and again disturbed the bird, but probably owing to the number 

 of people on the banks it did not cross the water, but simply 

 moved out of the way of the dogs, crouching down again at once. 

 Four days later (the 19th) was the last date on which it was 

 noticed. The gamekeeper and others at Great Bud worth are to 

 be congratulated that the bird was able to stay so long without 

 being shot. 



On Dec. 14th Mr. Oldham saw an old male Goosander with 

 the Ducks on Tatton Mere, and on the 17th I went to look for 

 the bird, and found it in company with another — a brown-headed 

 bird. They swam apart from the other fowl — Mallards, Tufted 

 Ducks, and Pochards — and after a time got upon the wing, 

 flying to a part of the lake where I obtained a still better view, 

 being near enough to see the rosy tinge upon the breast of the 

 old drake. The brown-headed bird — a female or young male — i- 

 dived much more frequently than the old male ; I timed some of 

 the dives, and found that they varied from a little under half a 

 minute to one minute forty seconds. Once one of the birds — I 

 think the old drake — uttered a long harsh " karrr," but this was 

 the only time we heard any of the birds utter any sound, though 

 we watched them many times during December, January, and 

 February. A few days later we again carefully timed the dura- 

 tion of the dives ; as a rule they only lasted for from seventeen 

 to twenty seconds, but once again we found the old male remained 

 beneath the water for a hundred seconds. 



On Dec. 27th there were two green-headed males and three 

 brown-headed birds on Tatton, and at the same time there were 

 a couple of Goosanders, too far away to distinguish their colours, 

 on the neighbouring mere at Eostherne. Tatton Mere was 

 frozen over during the frost in January, and though we visited 

 Rostherne, which remained open water, we failed to find the 

 Goosanders, but on such an extensive sheet of water, and amongst 

 a great crowd of fowl, it is quite possible that we missed them. 

 When the thaw came the birds returned to the former haunt, 



