

BIRDS 285 



saw about twenty Pochards at Monkhill Lough in one party, 

 chiefly full-dressed drakes ; I have seen a similar number on 

 numerous occasions, but have never known this to be exceeded, 

 nor do the birds leave their favourite quarters in winter, except 

 when frozen out. Pochards seldom stay later with us than the 

 beginning of April, and reappear in the following October, 

 their numbers increasing by the middle of winter. I believe, 

 however, that a pair of Pochards nested near Thrustonfield in 

 1889. On the 12th of August that year, a pair of Pochards 

 were seen on Monkhill Lough, resting lazily in the sedge on 

 the south side. The drake was in the plumage of a breeding 

 bird, the head and neck more dingy and the back darker than 

 in nuptial dress. The duck was more shy than her mate, and 

 when I stood up, they both stiffened their necks, shook them- 

 selves and retreated a few yards further into the sedge. Find- 

 ing that I was still intent on studying their movements, they 

 rose from the water and flew off in the direction of Thruston- 

 field; where the Rev. F. 0. Pickard -Cambridge and I saw a 

 brood of young ducks, which we considered to be Pochards, a 

 few days later. There cannot be the least doubt that if one 

 or two couples of pinioned Pochards were turned down on that 

 lough, and protected from foxes and other vermin, this species 

 would soon become very numerous in the district, from which 

 it is only absent, even now, during the four summer months. 



TUFTED DUCK. 



Fuligula cristata (Leach.). 



Neither Eichardson nor the elder Heysham catalogues the 

 Tufted Duck. Dr. Stanley included it in his list of the birds of 

 the neighbourhood of Whitehaven as early as 1829, and Dr. 

 Gough alluded to its presence as a winter visitor on the lakes 

 and tarns of Westmoreland in 1842, 1 so that for the last fifty 

 or sixty years it has ranked as belonging to the fauna of Lake- 

 land. It occurs very sparingly upon the coast line. Mr. 

 Sharpe never shot any Tufted Ducks in Morecambe Bay until 

 1 Zoologist, 1843, p. 183. 



