286 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



January 1891; they only visit the Kavenglass estuary irregularly, 

 and are scarce on the open parts of the Solway Firth. Mr. E, 

 Mann has met with a few individuals at different times in the 

 neighbourhood of Allonby, but Mr. Nicol, the punt-gunner, never 

 fell in with the species during all his years of hard shooting 

 near Silloth until December 1888, when he shot a drake and 

 duck out of a party of seven on the 14th of the month. Bryson, 

 another professional punt-shooter, sent me a male Tufted Duck 

 in January 1891, saying that he had never met with the species 

 before in the waters of the Solway Firth. The thigh of the 

 poor bird was broken, and we tried in vain to nurse it round, 

 but it looked very handsome as it lay upon the garden lawn, its 

 blue bill tucked into the dorsal plumage, and the golden irides 

 setting off the snowy flanks and glossy upper parts. The fact 

 is that the Tufted Duck prefers inland waters to those of the 

 coast, and absents itself from the coast except when performing 

 a journey, or when frozen out of its favourite retreats. Mr. 

 Baines tells me that the Tufted Duck visits Esthwaite water, 

 and he has known a drake to spend a whole summer there. It 

 is a scarce bird on the larger lakes, but still it occurs irregularly, 

 especially in spring, all over the waters of the western portion 

 of Lakeland, as on Derwentwater and Wastwater. I have 

 observed it myself at all seasons, sometimes very unexpectedly. 

 For instance, when driving from Cockermouth to Wright 

 Green with Mr. H. P. Senhouse, on the 10th of March 1888, 

 we saw three Tufted Ducks — two drakes and a female — on 

 Mockerkin tarn, a small oval strip of water lying among open 

 fields, close to the road, destitute also of suitable cover, though 

 there was then a little sedge at the south end. They visited 

 Whin's Pond, Edenhall, in the time of the late baronet, and 

 continue to do so. During the present summer [1891] hopes 

 were entertained of the Tufted Duck breeding on Whin's Pond, 

 in consequence of the appearance of a male and female in the 

 month of May. No female Tufted Duck could, however, be found 

 when we prosecuted a search on the 19 th of June, but we saw 

 a fine drake nearly in full livery, but having the white flanks 

 already clouded with a few brown feathers. He swam very low 

 in the water, and appeared to be reluctant to leave the side of 



