450 
APPENDIX. 
week or two, ancl always joined the flock when they came to the lake 
in the afternoon, swam about and fed with them, and when the main 
body went off at daybreak, they returned to their hiding-place among 
the reeds in the middle of the water. At last I went out on a door, 
as no boat could be had, and captured them ; one was a bean and the 
other a white-fronted goose, yet they always kept company after being- 
wounded, until taken. 
“ The ducks which are most numerous in Mayo are the common wild 
duck (called ‘heavy duck’), golden-eye, wigeon, tufted duck, and 
teal, all in immense numbers, particularly the last, which, on Lough 
Corrib, is literally in thousands. 
“ Wild ducks, before I came away on the 1st of April, were breeding 
in the ivy on old castles, fully fifty feet from the ground. In the castle 
of Turin, upwards of eighty feet in height, and covered with most luxu- 
riant ivy, these ducks bring out their young every summer at a great 
height. This castle is three miles from any piece of water, but not 
more than a gun-shot from a very extensive and wet bog. The abbey 
of Ross, another haunt, is close to a river and wet bog, and in the ivy 
on two castles near to it they also build. The shelldrake breeds at 
Lough Corrib, and I believe a few pair of the red-breasted mergansers 
do so. The fowlers positively state that at a part of this lake, most 
strictly preserved during the life-time of the proprietor (one or two 
years deceased), the wigeon bred.” 
Wild Duck, vol. iii. p. 75. 
It was omitted to be stated in the account of this bird, that it fre- 
quently breeds on the ground in marine localities, such as the Mew 
Island and the islets in Strangford Lough, or anywhere on the borders 
of the sea-coast where it will be free from disturbance. 
Wigeon, vol. iii. p. 98. 
Mr. R. J. Montgomery, writing in September 1850, mentions that 
an observant man (O’Neill), in the coast guard service, states that he 
knew wigeon to breed in the island of Achil, where he was stationed 
for several years. 
Velvet Scoter, vol. iii. p. 122. 
About the first week of September 1850, three of these ducks were 
seen in the Bay of Drogheda, by Mr. R. J. Montgomery. This is the 
