54 THE BIRDS OF THE ERITISH ISLES. 



frequented the lake at Southport for some days in April. The 

 usual time for arrival of migrants is from the middle of 

 September onwards, but birds are often noticed in August, 

 and I have seen it in mid-July. Passage birds are most 

 numerous in October. Many return north in March, but some 

 linger until May or even June. 



Very few birds have been found nesting in our islands, though 

 in Iceland it breeds freely. The immediate neighbourhood of 

 water is usually selected ; the eight to eleven eggs, greenish but 

 darker than those of the Pochard, average 2'43 by 171 inches 

 in size (Jourdain). Eggs in Scotland have been found in June. 



The adult drake has the head, neck, and breast black with a 

 green sheen, the upper parts white with fine vermiculations of 

 black and grey, and the flanks and under parts white. On the 

 wing is a white bar. The parts black in the drake are chocolate 

 in the duck, except the facial patch, which is white. The upper 

 parts are dark brown with grey pencilling, the sides dull brown 

 and also lined, and the under parts tinged with brown. In both 

 sexes the bill is greyish blue, darker in the female, and the 

 legs lead-blue ; the irides at all ages are yellow. The drake in 

 eclipse is said to resemble the duck, but an old drake in July, 

 swimming with a Tufted drake, had no trace of a mask. Its 

 greyish back was browner towards the ramp, and its wings 

 brown. The broad mask of the young birds is suffused with 

 brown, but still indistinct, and in immature drakes the head is 

 sooty. Length, 19 ins. Wing, 8-5 ins. Tarsus, 1*5 ins. 



Tufted Duck. Nyroca fuligida (Linn.). 



The increase of the Tufted Duck (Plate 24) within the last 

 fifty years is more striking than that of the Pochard ; in all 

 parts of the British Isles, including Ireland, where the Pochard 

 is yet feeling its way, the Tufted Duck is establishing itself as 

 a permanent resident. It is a fresh-water species with a 



