TUFTED DUCK. 57 



they circled round the selected female in February and March. 

 As the drake calls he rises vertically in the water and jerks his 

 head upwards. A duck, if uneasy when conducting her brood, 

 utters a frequent short grunt. 



The nest is placed in various situations, usually dn.' spots 

 near water, and is well concealed by rushes, reeds, heather, or 

 other herbage ; it may be in a hollow or beneath a bush, but is 

 occasionally exposed ; I have seen it on a fallen log. It is 

 formed of dry grass, sedges, and leaves, and the dark down 

 varies in quantity. The eight to ten eggs (Plate 21) are large, 

 greenish or olive-brown. They are laid late in May or in June, 

 and it is often well into July on Cheshire waters before the 

 sooty-brown little balls of down venture out into the open. The 

 duck in charge shows her anxiety by her stiffly upright neck, 

 and though prior to sitting she was constantly attended by her 

 mate, she is usually left to take all family responsibilities. Drakes 

 in eclipse swim together well away from the brood, though 

 I have seen one join the duck when the young had nearly 

 reached flapper stage. The juveniles crowd after their mother, 

 often pressing against her flanks, and if alarmed she by no 

 means always lures them to deeper water, as has been stated 

 to be her habit, but will lead them into the shelter of the 

 aquatic fringe. As the young grow the down becomes browner 

 — less sooty — and the eyts, at first brown, change to dull white, 

 and much later to yellow. Many birds in first plumage have 

 a marked white patch at the base of the bill, and adult females 

 at times retain a few white feathers ; the amount of white varies 

 in birds of the same brood. An interesting sidelight on the 

 spread of the species is suggested by the record of a nestling, 

 ringed in Northumberland, which was caught in Finland in 

 June two years later, where presumably it had gone to nest. 



The bill of the drake is slate-grey, almost blue, that of the 

 duck a little darker ; the legs are slate, the irides golden. The 

 male in eclipse is brown, but not so brown as the duck, and he 



