YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT GORMIRE AND THIRKLEBY. 243 



a yard with tame ducks. They were subsequently turned down on 

 a small lake of one and a half acres in the park, which together 

 with some wood and high brushwood is enclosed by a four-feet wire 

 netting, giving a space of four acres in all. The first year the Wigeon 

 made three nests in the brushwood and as far from the water as they 

 could get. Each nest contained seven eggs, which, as soon as the 

 hen bird commenced to line her nest with down, were taken and put 

 under bantams. These hatched out at the rate of five apiece, and 

 within a day of the regulation three weeks from date of setting. 

 This spring the Wigeon laid twenty-four eggs, and there are now at 

 Thirkleby twenty young ones, so tame that they will feed from the 

 hand, though almost full grown. We are not aware of any other part 

 of England where Wigeon are successfully reared except at Thirkleby, 

 especially in considerable numbers. Besides Wigeon we saw about 

 a score of young Gadwall, hatched from eggs obtained from Lord 

 Walsingham's meres in Norfolk, very fine young birds, but with few 

 distinctive marks at present, except their extremely long and light- 

 coloured bills and cheeks. Some of the most interesting among the 

 young water-fowl were a fine brood of Tufted Duck, nor should we 

 omit to mention some young Pochards. One pair of old Pochard 

 laid no less than twenty-eight eggs on an island in the lake at 

 Thirkleby this spring. Nearly all these eggs had birds in them, but 

 unfortunately several were unable to chip the shell owing to the 

 upper mandible being half-an-inch shorter than the lower one, an 

 imperfection which would have prevented the birds from feeding had 

 they even hatched out, and which deformity Sir Ralph attributes to 

 their parents having belonged to one nest. It is curious that the 

 Pochard only laid in their third year. The Wigeon commence laying 

 the last week in May, the Pochard a fortnight earlier. Tufted Duck 

 are the latest of all ducks to lay at Thirkleby, and do not commence 

 to do so till the middle of June. Suitable food is a great necessity. 

 Sir Ralph tells us, in the matter of laying when Wigeon are concerned. 

 The Wigeon on the lake never having laid more than seven eggs to 

 a nest, though in the Decoy on another piece of water, one duck 

 Wigeon made two nests last June, one nest containing ten eggs all 

 with birds in them, eight of which are now alive. This fecundity is, 

 we are informed, probably attributable to the weed {Chara foetida 

 var. atrovirens) which grows so profusely in the Decoy, and which 

 the Wigeon are never tired of pulling and eating. Shell Duck have 

 not done well at Thirkleby, and have never nested. In 1885, 

 Sir Ralph obtained from North Holland eighty eggs of this duck, but 

 though he succeeded in rearing fifty per cent, of them, only two are 

 now alive. To return to the Wigeon, we must say we take great 



Aug. 1887. 



