THE BIRDS OF NORTH KENT. 47 



consisting of young birds of the year, and old together, seems to 

 go towards corroborating their statement. But for myself, I can 

 only say that I have not noticed any single birds or pairs later 

 than the latter end of April. Concealed by my usual cover of 

 the river-wall, I one afternoon (March 13th, 1904) quietly 

 watched a large party of these Ducks playing and feeding in 

 the shallow water of a wide fleet. It was a mixed flock of male 

 and female birds, and the drakes were already decked in their 

 breeding colours, and looked very smart as compared with the 

 more soberly coloured ducks. They were a most lively party, 

 continually on the move, turning tail upwards in the water as 

 they tried to reach the bottom of the fleet, and every now and 

 then breaking off the business of feeding to chase one another. 

 Their most favourite action seemed to be to fly up into the air 

 two or three feet, and then to fall into the water with a flop and 

 splash, going right underneath. All the time they were playing 

 they kept uttering a short sibilant whistle, and male and female 

 joined in the play. 



The Wigeon, again, is a bird which, according to the shep- 

 herds, has nested formerly, but not of late years, in the district. 

 It is a bird which they know thoroughly well by sight, and of 

 which also I have seen young ones of the year amongst mobs 

 disturbed in early September. I have similar notes, as of the 

 Teal, of flocks seen along the fleets in the winter ; and also of a 

 small party of them swimming on the estuary at high tide one 

 February day. On the same day I heard the shrill, long-drawn 

 cry of the male on one of the fleets several times ; and I have 

 heard a mob, when flying, uttering all the time a soft whistling 

 note. But, again, my notes in the spring do not take one further 

 than the end of April, through which month I always come across 

 one or more pairs in various parts of the marsh. I am aware, 

 of course, that all authorities rule out any portion of the South 

 of England as a nesting habitat of this bird. But given pairs 

 already mated in the district in the early spring, and sufficient 

 quiet and want of disturbance, there seems nothing inherently 

 impossible in the idea of the bird becoming a breeding species. 



With regard to the Garganey and the Pochard, I feel abso- 

 lutely certain that there were more than one pair of each of these 

 species nesting in parts of the marshes last year, and that it is 



