202 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



November 18; Minnesota, Heron Lake, November 27; Pennsylvania, 

 Erie, December 21, 



Casual records. — Accidental in Bermuda (October 30, 1851). Rare 

 or accidental on migrations east to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 



Egg dates. — Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta: Eighteen rec- 

 ords. May 26 to 27; nine records, June 1 to 11. Minnesota and North 

 Dakota: Twelve records, May 9 to June 25; six records, May 31 to 

 June 11. Colorado and Utah: Four records. May 23 to June 20. 



FULIGULA FULIGULA (Linnaeus). 



TUFTED DtrCK. 



HABITS. 



This widely distributed Palaearctic species is closely related to our 

 ring-necked duck and might be said to replace it throughout its 

 extensive breeding range from western Europe to extreme eastern 

 Asia. Audubon (1840) says, referring to the ring-necked duck: 



We are indebted for the discovery of this species to my friend the Prince of 

 Musignanoj who first pointed out the difference between it and the tufted duck of 

 Europe. The distinctions that exist in the two species he ascertained about the time 

 of my first acquaintance with him at Philadelphia in 1824, when he was much pleased 

 on seeing my drawing of a male and a female, which I had made at Louisville, in 

 Kentucky, previous to Wilson's \dsit to me there. Wilson supposed it identical 

 with the European species. 



Mr. Ned Hollister (1919) has also referred to this relationship. 



There is, so far as I know, but one record of the capture of a tufted 

 duck in North American territory, for which we are indebted to Dr. 

 Barton W. Evermann (1913) who reported the capture of a female 

 on St. Paul Island, Alaska, on May 9, 1911. "The bird was accompa- 

 nied by the male which escaped." 



I have never seen this species in life, but fortunately Mr. J. G. 

 Millais (1913) has written a very full and satisfactory life history of 

 it from which I shall quote, as follows : 



Throughout its range the tufted duck is essentially an inhabitant of open sheets 

 of fresh water, preferring those of moderate size that have a considerable depth in 

 the center, and whose shallows are overgrown with reeds and other aquatic plants. 

 They also like lakes with numerous islands and backwater, not too narrow, where 

 they can sit and preen in the shallows in non-feeding hours, and whose vegetation 

 gives them protection from the wind. In fact, all ducks that frequent open lakes of 

 fresh water dislike drafts and take full advantage of the cover that grows along the 

 banks, either sitting under the lee, or resting and diving at such a distance from shore 

 that some protection is afforded. It is only in still weather or moderate breezes that 

 they assemble in numbers on the open and deep parts of a lake, or when subject to 

 frequent disturbance. 



Spring. — On large lakes, like Loch Levea, where tufteds intend to breed, most 

 of the adult birds are paired off by the end of March, and keep closely together 

 during the early part of the breeding season. There are, however, many small lakes 

 and ponds where tufteds breod, which are not frequented by^tho birds in winter, 



