Apr., 1889. 
IN SHERWOOD FOREST. 
88 
ground. A long and nearly circular chain of ponds, not far 
from Harlow Wood, interspersed with patches of bog, clothed 
with bilberry, wax-heatli, and waving cotton grass, and in 
places with alder and sallow bushes, and partly joined by a 
rapid trout stream rising in Tliieve’s Wood, runs through the 
cultivated fields. Here, besides the common Wild Duck and 
the Teal, the Shoveller and the Tufted Duck breed in some 
numbers ; the little Grebe also, and the Moorhen and Coot, 
while the Snipe nests annually in the bogs. A couple of 
downy young of the latter, taken here by a farm boy, are 
now, through my friend’s kindness, in my collection, and I 
have a vivid recollection of unsuccessful searches after the 
nest of a pair on two bright spring evenings. On each 
occasion the hen bird managed to slip off unobserved, while 
we were stepping carefully about on the treacherous ground. 
Once safely off the nest, she remained circling round over¬ 
head in the clear sky, uttering a very curious note, cuck, cuck, 
cuck, and entirely distinct from the whitu/c, whituk, uttered on 
the ground. 
In the course of a walk round the ponds in spring I have 
counted as many as eleven pairs of Shovellers, and this 
without visiting the outlying forest pools. There can hardly 
be a more pleasing sight for the ornithologist than a pair of 
these beautiful ducks quietly floating on the water under the 
bank of some alder-bordered pond ; the many and varied 
colours of the drake being seen to equal advantage whether 
bathed in the brilliant morning sunshine, or slightly reflected 
in the smooth surface of the water under a quiet, grey, evening 
sky. Presently they rise upon the wing, their monosyllabic 
flight-cry sounding like tuck, tuck, tuck ; once or twice they 
wheel round us overhead, then sink gently down to alight on 
the further end of the pond. It is only recently that the nest 
of the Shoveller has been found in this neighbourhood, for the 
duck strays away when about to go to nest, laying her eggs 
generally in mowing grass in the water meadows, and does 
not bring her young down to the water until nearly full grown. 
No better or pleasanter spot could be chosen for the observation 
of the breeding habits of the Tufted Duck than the garden of 
the old forest “ lodge ” at Rainworth, where the owner has 
enjoyed unexampled opportunities of studying the natural 
history of these neat little black and white ducks. Here, 
seated under the beech trees down by the water-side, an early 
summer morning may most enjoyably be whiled away in 
watching the pair or two which frequent this water. Some 
time, of course, in eacli day is spent in actively diving for food, 
the ducks generally remaining under water some fifteen or 
