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•BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND. 
In Rutland. — As in Leicestershire. — Lord Grainsborough informs me that 
it is “ a pretty constant visitant to the ponds in Exton Park, but is less 
common than the Tufted Duck.” C. Masters states that it is often killed at 
Barley Ponds, and I saw one in his possession — a nice male — shot at Burley 
about 1883. 
GOLDENEYE. Clangula glaucion (Linnaeus). 
“ Golden-eyed Garrot.” 
An uncommon winter visitant. — Mr. Babington (Supplement ‘ Potter’) wrote : 
• — ■“ Killed at Groby, by the keeper of the Earl of Stamford, and also in Lough- 
borough meadows.” Harley recorded that, during the severe winter of 1845, it 
appeared in the county in pretty fair numbers, several examples being obtained 
at Groby Pool. He was informed that it also occurred rather numerously in 
many other districts, and stated that it occurred at Groby Pool, Bosworth, 
Saddington, and elsewhere, during the winter months. I have seen a fine female 
specimen in the possession of T. W. Tebbs, of the Union Inn, Blaby, shot by 
him at the “Big brook,” Blaby, in the winter of 1880. John Ryder sent 
to the Museum a beautiful adult male specimen, shot on the lake at Belvoir, 
28th Oct., 1885. 
In Rutland. — As in Leicestershire. — Lord Gainsborough says it is seen on 
the ponds in Exton Park, but is not common. Masters informs me that one 
was killed at Burley Ponds, in December, 1880. 
The Rev. J. Birch Reynardson, of Careby Rectory, Stamford, in an interesting 
letter upon the habits of certain Ducks, writes me about this bird : — “ A wonderful 
fellow for catching fish. I have seen him come up from diving, with a Gudgeon 
taken cross-ways in his bill, and then throw it in the air, catch it by the head 
and swallow it.” 
HARLEQUIN DUCK. Gosmonetta histrionica (Linnaeus). 
Of this very rare straggler to the British Isles, Harley wrote: — “ 1845.— 
The appearance of this rare bird in the county of Leicester, I record with much 
satisfaction, and I am enabled to do so on the authority of Mr. Chaplin,* of 
Groby, who shot a pair of Harlequin Ducks on the pool during the inclement 
season of the early months of the year which we have so recently experienced. 
These two rare visitants were associated with Scoters, Tufted Ducks, Teals, and 
Wigeons, and it must be observed that the manifest difference in the plumage 
of the birds, so remarkably diverse from their companions, led to their capture, 
* Chaplin was the keeper at Groby then, and appears to have been a man of discernment ; 
still, to those who know how few keepers there are who properly discriminate between closely 
allied forms, it will always be a matter of conjecture whether he had mistaken the species, only 
three specimens (said to have been killed in Britain) being known (see Mr. Howard Saunders, 
F.L.S., F.Z.S., pp. 319-20, ‘ P.Z.S.’, 1887j. 
