86 
ANATIDJ5. 
THE GADWALL. 
Anas strep era, Linn. 
Is of rare occurrence in Ireland. 
The first individual recorded* is one which I saw in March 1833, 
in the collection of Dr. R. Graves of Dublin, who informed me 
that it was shot at Wexford, and sent to him thence in a recent 
state, in the winter just then past. When in Dublin in May 
1838, I was told by Mr. Glennon that two gad walls, which were 
brought to him, had been shot on the coast of Malahide a few 
miles distant on the 24th of January preceding, and that, early 
in the month of March, a bird of this species was sent to him for 
preservation by Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., of Knockdrin Castle, 
Westmeath. I subsequently learned from this gentleman that 
the specimen was shot at that inland locality. Mr. W. S. Wall 
(bird-preserver) received a young male, killed in the same winter 
at Baldoyle, and purchased another (a female) in the market of 
the metropolis : — it will be recollected that the winter of 1837-38 
was particularly productive of the Anatidee. 
In a paper read before the Dublin Natural History Society on the 
4tli of December 1840, Mr. H. H. Dombrain mentioned his having- 
procured a fine male gadwall, which had been shot at Malahide in 
the preceding week. Male and female specimens, presented to 
that society in 1841 or 1842, by Mr. Massey, of the Pigeon-house 
Port, are believed to have been obtained in the Bay of Dublin. 
I have seen a bird of this species in the collection of Mr. J. Watters, 
jun., of that city, by whom I am assured that he saw two fresh 
specimens, male and female, in the market there on the 8th of 
December, 1846, and an immature bird about the 18th of that 
month in 1849; also, that he has seen at least one on sale by 
wild-fowl dealers in the course of every winter for some years past : 
all of which were killed in Ireland.! 
* Proceedings Zool. Soc. ] 834, p. 30. 
f This singularly agrees with what is said of the gadwall in the east of England. 
The Rev. Mr. Lubbock informs us that it “is generally to be seen in Norwich mar- 
ket once or twice in the winter.” — ' Fauna of Norfolk,’ p. 119. 
