278 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



locality for wild-fowl. I have occasionally observed a Pintail 

 at Monkhill Lough, and there saw two birds in December 1890, 

 flying together, and easily recognised by their long necks and 

 fine shape. Mr. Thorpe observed a single drake Pintail on the 

 same lough in the following February. A few Pintail have 

 been shot from time to time by flight- shooters on Rockliffe 

 marsh, and there one of the handsomest male Pintail that I 

 have seen was shot in January 1891 by Mr. Mason. These 

 birds fly up the Eden also, as far at any rate as Edenhall (in 

 which district birds of this species were observed last winter 

 and previously), as well as on the mosses of the Eden valley, 

 whence two, shot near Armathwaite on October 9, 1890. In 

 Westmorland a fine male was shot some years ago near Shap ; 

 again returning to the neighbourhood of Morecambe Bay, I may 

 say that Mr. C. F. Archibald shot a female Pintail in the 

 Rusland valley early in January 1891. It will be seen from 

 the foregoing notes that Pintail do not visit Lakeland numer- 

 ously, although odd specimens are obtained either in company 

 with a few examples of their own species, or when associating 

 with either Mallard or Wigeon. Those that I have examined 

 in the flesh were generally immature or full-dressed; but a 

 male in eclipse was brought to us from the Solway in December 

 1888. My friend, Mr. Backhouse, drew attention to a pair of 

 Pintail, kept in a pinioned state at Low Wood, near Ambleside, 

 by Miss Meyer, from whom we learnt that her old birds bred 

 successfully from 1877 to 1881, when she parted with them. 

 A pair of Pintail frequented Bowness Flow during the summer 

 of 1890, and were often seen flighting on the coast by the 

 fishermen of Bowness, and by James Smith, in whose company 

 I searched long but unsuccessfully for any proof of their nesting 

 on the moss they chiefly haunted. 



Since the foregoing lines were penned I received from W. 

 Nicol a singularly handsome pair of Pintails, shot by himself on 

 the Solway. They reached me not inappropriately on Christ- 

 mas Eve, 1891. These are the last he has shot up to date of 

 going to press. 



