96 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



heard from him, saying he had this year seen two young birds, which 

 must have been bred in the neighbourhood. They cannot well be 

 mistaken for any other Duck, on account of the peculiar breadth of 

 their bill, from whence their name. The male is a very handsomely- 

 marked bird, with the pale blue on its wing coverts, and the deep 

 reddish brown of the under parts, the colouring being just the 

 reverse of the Mallard, white on the breast and dark on the lower 

 portions of the body. 



Cliaulelasmus Streperus. " Gad wall." This bird is by no means 

 of frequent occurrence amongst us. I know of no nearer local 

 specimens than those occurring at Christchurch, and there their 

 occurrence is sufficiently rare for Hart to note down any arrivals 

 that take place. He was out flight shooting on January 8th, 1875, 

 when three Ducks came over his head, out of which he bagged two, 

 and was not a little pleased to find that they were a pair of Gadwalls. 

 Another pair was also procured in the harbour on October 21st, 

 1879; and another male bird on October 28th of the same year; 

 and two others, females, from the same place, about the year 1880. 

 The last occurrence he noted down was a male killed at Ibsley 

 (Somerleigh House) on January 26th of the present year (1884). 



Anas Boschas. "Mallard or Wild Duck/' We come now to 

 one of the commonest and most familiar of our water birds. In 

 fact they are plentiful, I may say, in our meadows. They breed 

 freely amongst us ; and, although many nests annually come to 

 grief through both biped and four-footed enemies, there are always 

 enough left to afford a plentiful supply. When walking in the 

 water-meadows in the early spring I have often put up between 

 fifteen and twenty pairs of Ducks, which evidently intended to 

 cling to our locality. They are fond of making their nests in the 

 crowns of the old pollard willows that abound in the meadows ; and 

 I have frequently discovered their whereabouts by their unexpectedly 

 flying off their nests as I walked underneath the tree, which, un- 

 known to me, contained their treasure. The old bird is very careful 

 in covering up her eggs if she leaves the nest for any length of 

 time, thus keeping them safe from the prying eyes of Crow 

 or Jackdaw, which are always on the watch for a chance of 



