44 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Pochard has a very limited range, confined to the south-west 

 portion of the Palsearctic Eegion. North of about lat. 50° it is 

 an accidental visitor to Pomerania and the Baltic Provinces, 

 Poland, Denmark, Belgium, and the north of France. Its 

 principal habitat is in Spain, the basins of the Mediterranean, 

 Black, and Caspian Seas, and Eussian Turkestan, migrating 

 southwards to Afghanistan to winter throughout India. Dr. 

 Baldamus found the nests built amongst the rushes and flags on 

 a small island in a pond. The foundation was made of decayed 

 steins of rushes or dead leaves, on which a warm bed of down 

 was placed as the full complement of the eggs are completed. 

 The eggs of the Ked-crested Pochard are usually eight or nine 

 in number, and resemble those of the Pochard, but are paler and 

 greener. They vary in length from 2 - 35 to 22 inches, and in 

 breadth from 1*7 to 1*58 inch. They almost resemble in colour 

 pale eggs of the Golden-eye ; but there can be no doubt that the 

 down is dark and quite unlike that of the hole-nesting species. 



THE WHITE-EYED POCHAED. 



( Fu lig ula nyroca.)* 

 Plate 14, Fig. 4. 

 The White-eyed Pochard, or Ferruginous Duck, as it is some- 

 times called, is a somewhat rare straggler on migration to the 

 British Islands, occurring most frequently in the eastern counties 

 of England. In Europe it is not known to breed north of the 

 Baltic, and only occurs accidentally in Denmark and the Baltic 

 Provinces. In Eussia the northern limit of its range appears to 

 be Moscow, Kasan, and Ekaterinburg ; but, in the valley of the 

 Ob, Finsch says that he undoubtedly saw it as far north as the 

 Arctic circle. No other traveller has recorded it from Siberia, nor 

 did Prjevalsky meet with it in Mongolia ; but since Abbe David 

 records its abundance in winter in North China, and Blakiston 

 and Pryer have sent examples from Japan, there can be no 

 doubt that it must breed either in the valley of the Amoor or in 

 Mongolia. It is a summer visitor to Central Europe south of 

 the Baltic, but is a resident in the basin of the Mediterranean, 

 though it has not been found breeding in Egypt. 



* Nyroca nyroca — Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 9. 



