300 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



Firth. The first English Solway bird was shot on Oct. 10th 

 by Nicol, who had observed two individuals as early as Oct. 3rd, 

 and who in one afternoon observed a total of eleven Long- 

 tailed Ducks, in three parties, consisting of five, and four, and 

 two birds respectively. Altogether, upwards of a score must 

 have been killed during the visitation, on the united waters of 

 the Firth ; we examined the birds shot on the Scotch side as 

 well as those of our own waters, and found several young males 

 in the number, although females predominated. During the 

 winter of 1888-89 no Long-tailed Ducks were seen, but Mr. 

 Nicol sent to Mr. Edward Tandy a fine old female which he 

 shot on December 1st, 1889, and had a shot at another single 

 bird (which he missed) on the 28th of November 1890. There 

 can be no doubt that this Duck has hitherto paid but scanty 

 visits to the Solway Firth. The late Captain Kinsey Dover 

 had a large experience of punt-shooting in the waters of the 

 Solway, and he assured me that on no occasion did he come 

 across a Long-tailed Duck. The Long-tailed Duck has occurred 

 with us at a distance from the sea only in a single instance. 

 On the 18th of April 1889 a farmer and his dog caught a 

 lamed bird of this species on a small moorland beck near 

 Ken wick. It was an adult male, already far advanced in 

 assuming the plumage of the breeding-time. It was not much 

 injured, and lived in captivity for two or three days. Its 

 death was probably due to want of proper food. It was 

 stuffed by Mr. Dryden, in whose possession I examined it 

 shortly after. The birds which were shot on the Solway in 

 1887 proved, on dissection, to have dieted almost exclusively 

 upon shrimps. The bird shot in December 1890 contained 

 some small mussels freshly swallowed and intact. A young 

 drake which VV. Nicol shot on the Waver, Oct. 29th, 1891, 

 proved on examination to have been feeding on small bivalve 

 shells, which we found on dissection to be in a crushed con- 

 dition. This happened to be the most juvenile male Long-tailed 

 Duck that I have noticed locally, the scapulars being as uniform 

 in colour as in the female. All the other young drakes that 

 I have seen in the district had begun to sport one or two white 

 feathers among the scapulars at the time when they were killed. 





