RTTFF. 
189 
Thomas Allis writes that he has known of others. In 
Somersetshire they formerly occurred in the fens near Bridge- 
water. In Cambridgeshire, they used to frequent, though much 
more plentifully some years than others, the Isle of Ely, and 
occasionally the Bottisham and Swaffham Fens. In Surrey, 
a considerable flight of these birds, apparently all of them 
young ones, was found near Godaiming, on the 20th. of 
August, 1836. 
They occasionally visit Ireland. Two males and two females 
were procured at Kildare. 
In Scotland, stragglers have not unfrequently been met with. 
Sir William Jardine has obtained specimens on the shores of 
the Forth, from Holy Island, northwards, and also on the 
Pentland Hills, and the banks of the Solway. In Orkney they 
have been observed. There they have generally made their 
appearance about September. They were very abundant in 
Sanday, in the month of September, in 1830, 1835, and 1837. 
The fens have heretofore afforded their favourite locality, but 
they have also been met with upon the moors, and on mosses, 
and in salt marshes, and still more frequently along the coast, 
on their passage to and fro. 
They arrive, or used to arrive, in April, and leave in 
September, many thus staying the summer and rearing their 
young. Some indeed have done so recently, at Cawlish Wash, 
near Spalding, in Lincolnshire, in which county, other localities 
used to be the fens near Boston and Spilsby, and the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Crowland. A few have been found occasionally 
in the winter; one near Slapton, in Devonshire, on the 27tln 
of December, 1808. 
The young are fully fledged by the end of August, and 
assemble in August or September, to depart in company with 
the old females, the males leaving by themselves a few days 
sooner. 
These birds are excellent eating, and are easily fattened in 
confinement for the purpose. Great numbers were formerly 
taken in nets in the fens, for the table, in the month of 
September; but there are now but few to be found, from this 
and other causes. A fen-man told Pennant that he had caught 
six dozen in one morning; and ten dozen were sent in the 
same day to Leadenhall market, in the year 1824. The 
catching of them was a regular business, though confined only 
to a few families. One family, that of Towns, had been in 
the trade a hundred years in the time of Montagu. The 
