130 
ANATIM. 
the onward progress of the birds. Mj informant and another 
fowler having remarked the two species feeding at high-water, 
and then only at a particular part of the bay, examined the 
bottom there, when the tide was out, and observed these lines. 
They picked up some shells from the stratum of ooze above the 
sand, and, on shooting the birds, found the same kind in their 
stomachs ; — these shells being brought to me, proved to be Tellina 
solidula 3 oi small size, not exceeding one- third of an inch in diameter. 
Mr. Selby remarks, that “ the flesh of this bird is tender and 
well-flavoured, unless killed in the neighbourhood of the sea, 
when it frequently acquires a rank and fishy taste” (p. 349). 
Mr. Yarrell observes more fully : — “ Dun-birds [pochards] are in 
general remarkable for the excellence of their flesh, and probably 
but little inferior to the far-famed canvas-backed duck of the 
United States, which it very closely resembles, in the colour of 
its plumage ; but our dun-bird is the smaller of the two. As 
the canvas-backed duck of America is considered to derive the 
goodness^and flavour for which it is so much esteemed from its 
taking a considerable portion of a particular vegetable food [said 
by Dr. Nuttall to be Valisneria Americana , Zoster a marina , and 
Rupjoia maritima,~\ and is much less prized in spring when 
deprived of it, and obliged to live entirely at sea ; so our dun- 
birds are best while they feed at the mouths of rivers, and about 
fresh-water; but when they feed at sea on fishes, Crustacea, and 
moilusca, I have found them coarse and ill-flavoured” (vol. iii. 
p. 235). Wilson and Audubon mention the pochard as highly 
esteemed in America, and the latter author states that he found 
food of various kinds in those killed in the shallow ponds of the 
interior. The pochard, though considered better than the scaup 
in Belfast, is but little esteemed for the table, and brings no 
higher price to the shooter than that species— from six to nine- 
pence each. The dealers rarely purchase them, except as a favour 
from the regular shooters, who supply them with wigeon and 
brent geese. Yet pochards should be particularly good here, as 
they always find abundance of vegetable food. Nothing else 
