BIRDS 277 



Flookburgh fowler, has two stuffed Pintail, which, as his better 

 half informed me, are ' rather partikler.' She could not 

 remember having ever seen any others brought in by her 

 husband or sons. A male in female dress is preserved in the 

 Kendal Museum, labelled ' from Arnside, presented by Mr J. 

 Alexander.' Mrs. Arnold tells me that the late Dr. Gough paid 

 considerable attention to the wild-fowl of Arnside, and that he 

 was much pleased in observing occasional Pintail ; though, as 

 the lady added, 'they are rare of course, and not often met 

 with.' A few Pintail have been killed on the S.W. coast of 

 Cumberland, whence the late Grayson of Whitehaven received 

 specimens. I picked up the wing of a female Pintail near 

 Ravenglass in June 1889. Stragglers visit the Solway Firth 

 irregularly, and most of the older gunners on the Solway have 

 at one time or another secured a couple or an odd bird of this 

 species in some state of plumage. 



Mr. R. Mann reported to me a fine drake seen near Mow- 

 bray, Allonby, in January 1887, and others have visited that 

 neighbourhood. Mr. Nicol meets with the Pintail almost every 

 year, on the Wampool and Waver estuary, either as young birds 

 migrating in autumn, or in January and February as hard- 

 weather fowl, or as spring visitors from the middle of March to 

 the middle of April. In 1886 he shot a single young bird out 

 of a flock of Wigeon on October 28. In 1887 he saw a 

 pair at Skinburness as early as September 8, and in 1888 saw 

 three Pintail on the 29th of that month, shooting one of them 

 a few days later. In 1889 he saw a male Pintail in January, 

 and saw five males and two females in April, when one or two 

 others were killed. In 1890 he saw a pair of Pintail on the 

 last day of March, and shot another on October 20. At the 

 end of 1890, and beginning of 1891, he saw two drakes con- 

 sorting with four Mallard, and in the last week of Feb. 1891 he 

 shot a beautiful drake out of a flock of Wigeon, and two others 

 in October 1891 ; making a total of 20, observed between the 

 autumn of 1886 and the autumn of 1891, both inclusive. I 

 have extracted these dates from his letters, because they show 

 the experience of a first-rate wild-fowler, who knows his birds 

 really well, and is out daily in all weathers in a most favourable 



