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BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND. 
28th April, 1886, two were procured at Belvoir ; both were males — one a beautiful 
adult, the other immature, — and are now in the Museum. 
In Eutland. — As in Leicestershire. — The Earl of Gainsborough reports that 
it is occasionally seen on the ponds in Exton Park, and Mr. Horn informs me 
that it sometimes visits the Welland Valley. Masters sent me a female in the 
interesting stage of autumnal plumage, shot by him on 13th Oct., 1888, at 
which time he also shot another, apparently younger. 
PINTAIL. Dafila acuta (Linnaeus). 
An uncommon winter visitant. — Harley recorded that Chaplin shot a fine 
Dair in female attire, on the hanks of Groby Pool, in November, 1845, and 
chat during the year, several other examples were shot in various parts of the 
county. Mr. John Hunt, formerly of Leicester, informed me that sometime 
about 1880, he shot one at Kilby Bridge. 
In Rutland. — As in Leicestershire. — I have seen a splendid male specimen 
in the possession of C. Masters, which was shot by him at Burley Ponds, in 
December, 1883. 
WILD DUCK. Anas boscas (Linnaeus). 
“ Mallard ” (male). 
Resident, and generally distributed. — I shot one (a female) within two fields 
of the tram-line, at Aylestone, 23rd Jan., 1886. 
Harley records that, in his youth, he saw a nest built in the crown of a 
pollard willow, in a small, marshy meadow by the brook which falls into the 
Soar near Loughborough. After the young were hatched, the female was 
observed to induce them to leave the tree by emitting a shrill cry, and, 
reaching the ground in safety, the little ones were led away by the mother 
to the adjacent brook. 
]\Ir. T. Groves asserts that he saw a Duck sitting on a clutch of eleven 
eggs deposited in an oak-tree, at a height of ten feet from the ground, in 
Bradgate Park, in 1881. In the spring of 1887, a female bird (apparently, as I 
am informed, of this species) joined some tame “Aylesburys” belonging to Mr. 
Kellett, on the Soar, which flows past his house on the Aylestone Road, and, 
after some time, became sufficiently tame to go with them into the fowl-house 
each night. It never, however, availed itself of the ladder up which the other 
Ducks waddled from the water, but always flew from the water into the garden. 
It went away several times, but ultimately made a nest in a willow-tree on 
the river, close to the main tram-road, and laid eggs ; but as, unfortunately, 
both eggs and bird disappeared one night, it was thought to have been killed 
or .stolen. 
The Wild Duck is seldom absent from the Belvoir Lake, or Reservoir, where 
it breeds regularly, as it does also at Rolleston and Saddington. 
