234 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE, 
A note in the " Field " records that a pair were shot at 
Hurstbourne, on June 23rd, 1878.^ 
The Hon. Alick Baring, writing to Kelsall from the 
Grange, near Alresford, in 1889, says," I am hoping that 
the tufted duck may breed with us. I have noticed it as 
late as mid- April, but never afterwards.'^ 
None of Kelsall's correspondents at this time, including 
Messrs. Stares and Hart, knew of the nesting of the bird 
in the county. 
But in the following year, 1890, Mr. Baring wrote to 
Kelsall as follows : — " Since writing to you, I am glad 
to say one pair have nested on the lake here. My 
attention was first called to the fact by a man employed in 
cutting weeds, I saw the old bird on the nest, and on the 
water within a few yards of me, as she left the nest. The 
nest was built in the thick branches of a dogwood bush, 
very little above the level of the water, like a coot's or 
moorhen's nest. She hatched safely." 
In August, 1 89 1, the same observer wrote to the "Zoo- 
logist" that two pairs bred there that summer: — "The first 
nest contained twelve eggs, all of which hatched, and I 
still see the old duck about continually with her brood, 
which consists of nine. The second nest I was never able 
to find, but I see the old bird about with her brood of 
four." He mentions that the brood of the previous year 
was hatched in an old coot's nest. 2 
In June, 1892, also, two broods were hatched in the 
same locality, ^ but in 1893 no nests were found there.'* 
However, in the last-mentioned season Mr. Stares dis- 
covered a new nesting locality in the neighbourhood of 
^" Field." February 8th, 1879. '"Zoologist." September, 1891. 
^"Zoologist." January, 1893. '♦"Zoologist." August, 1894. 
