174 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Teal, singly or in twos or threes, accompanied the larger 

 Ducks all through the winter ; quite early in the season we met 

 with them at Tatton, and on Budworth and other waters they 

 were present. Even when the light was so poor that we could 

 not distinguish the little birds, we could tell that they were 

 present when we heard the short sharp "krit" amongst the loud 

 quacks of the Mallards. On the 19th of March I flushed thirteen 

 Teal from a secluded reed-fringed pond near Knutsford, on an 

 estate where for many years Teal have bred in safety. 



Wigeon were never numerous, but odd birds turned up from 

 time to time on different waters, and they were reported as being 

 abundant in the estuaries ; it should, however, be borne in mind 

 that amongst wildfowlers the name "wigeon" is applied to many 

 species of Ducks. 



The Diving Ducks were somewhat late in appearing ; it was 

 not until Nov. 2nd that we saw a couple of Tufted Ducks on 

 Tatton Mere. Later in the same month Mr. F. S. Graves saw 

 a mixed flock of Tufteds and Pochards on Redes Mere ; he 

 calculated that it numbered upwards of sixty birds. Early in 

 December, when Tatton Mere was half frozen over, some thirty 

 Pochards and a single Tufted Duck were noted, and about the 

 same time flocks of perhaps eighty Pochards and thirty Tufted 

 Ducks frequented Budworth Mere. Later in December we saw 

 a considerable number of Pochards, but no Tufteds, on Tatton 

 and Rostherne, but early in January both species were present 

 on Budworth. A little later — on Jan. 10th — there were from 

 seventy to eighty Tufteds and perhaps twenty Pochards at 

 Tatton, but four days after this there was not a single Tufted 

 Duck on Budworth, although there were quite one hundred and 

 fifty Pochards. Many of these birds remained on a small patch 

 of open water on this mere when the rest of the water was given 

 up to skaters. On Rostherne on the 17th, when Mallards were 

 so abundant, both Pochards and Tufted Ducks were present in 

 some hundreds. 



After the thaw both species of Diving Duck visited Budworth, 

 and there were a few Tufteds on Tatton. Early in February the 

 numbers of these Ducks became still more irregular, seven or 

 eight Tufteds and a single Pochard being all that I could see on 

 Budworth on the 5th and 18th ; while at the beginning of March, 



