MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
331 
end. A short time afterwards I recognised the same thing in 
Mr. E. Corder’s aquarium, and found from him that they are the 
winter bulbs of the Frog-bit, which fall oil' the roots in the 
autumn, and sit immersed about a third of their height in the mud 
(which accounts for the bleaching), and grow again in the spring. 
Herbert D. Geldart. 
X. 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
Food of the Golden-eye Duck, Eider, and Pintail. As 
not much lias been written on the food of Ducks it will do no 
harm to place on record that a Golden-eye sent to Mr. Roberts 
from Woodbastwick, which I examined with him on January 23rd, 
had in its mouth and throat some green tubers ; and that these 
have been identified by Mr. Geldart as the winter bulb of the 
Frog-bit ( Hydrocharis morsus-rana *). Two Eider Ducks were 
shot off Cley on January 25th, probably when engaged in diving 
for Cockles, as one of them had four in its gullet, all entire, and 
the largest one three inches in circumference. Some more could be 
felt lower down, but in the gizzard there were only broken fragments, 
a Periwinkle, and a seed of some kind. The last day before the 
close-time a beautiful pair of Pintails, paired it is to be feared 
for the honeymoon, were shot at Cley. They had been feeding on 
small shells, seemingly from the Museum collection of the genus 
Rissoa, which they may have got in the harbour. The female 
weighed only 1 lb. 5 oz., which is less that half what some of the 
males go up to according to “ YarrelL” — J. II. Gurney. 
