206 BinLLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL, MUSEUM. 



Game. — On the whole the tufted duck is not very easy to ehoot on large sheets of 

 water. But even in such places they may be stalked from behind banks or 

 through woods, and watched when swimming within shot of the shore. When the 

 flock is found on feed the gunner can then run in and obtain his chance as the birds 

 rise to the surface. When little disturbed it is possible to sail within gunshot of a 

 flock on the open water, but the old birds are usually difficult to obtain in this way 

 unless they are "cornered" in some backwater or arm of the lake, when they will 

 not fly overhead but pass within shot to the open waters of the lake. I have killed 

 many by lying hidden on small islands in Loch Leven. There they will pass at 

 close range on stormy days, but always keep well out of shot of the larger islands. 

 Winged birds shot from the shore are seldom recovered unless shot again at once 

 before they commence to dive, but from a boat winged birds may be tired out and 

 killed more easily than pochard or scaup, since they neither possess the constitution 

 nor vitality of these ducks. On small lakes or ponds tufted ducks are easily shot, 

 as there is always some comer or point of land where the gimner can stand in 

 bushes and hide himself to intercept them as they leave the place. It is merely 

 necessary to find this spot and send a man round to drive the birds and they will 

 come straight to the gunner. Moreover, in leaving small sheets of water tufted 

 ducks do not rise high, and so offer an easy mark. 



Winter. — Speaking of the winter habits of the species in Germany, Naumann 

 says: "Although they seem fairly unsusceptible to cold, as long as ice does not 

 entirely close the pieces of water to them, yet for all colder lands they remain birds 

 of passage. From September or the beginning of October onward they assemble in 

 small companies on larger sheets of water, and these flocks grow bigger in proportion 

 as the year advances until finally in November or December they have become 

 flocks of many thousands; at the approach of frosts they endeavor to prevent the 

 complete freezing of certain places on the water by continued movement, and all at 

 first start on their journey together if they can no longer succeed in doing this and 

 the water is altogether covered with ice. They wander off in great flocks in search 

 [of water] from which only a few occasionally through some mishap become separated, 

 for afterwards on still open places on the rivers you seldom come across heron-duck 

 (tufteds), and these will soon follow after, so that in the middle of the winter (unless 

 it is quite a mild one) there are none to be seen in our country. Wliilst those as- 

 sembled in the north and east of Germany desert us in order, some of them winter 

 in southern lands in Switzerland, Italy, and Hungary, on large inland lakes, or on 

 the sea coasts." 



Some remain in the sea or the north and east coast of Germany, but generally 

 aboiit the tidal estuaries. Their appearance on the open sea Naumann very rightly 

 regards as exceptional. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range. — Palaearctic region. From the Faroes, the Brit- 

 ish Isles, and Norway entirely across Europe and Asia to eastern 

 Siberia and Kamchatka. North to about 70° N. and south to about 

 60° N. 



Winter range. — Southern Europe, northern Africa to Abyssinia and 

 southern Asia (India, China, and Japan), and Formosa. 



Casual records. — Wanders to Madeira, Liberia, the Seychelle, Pelew, 

 Marianne and Philippine Islands, and Borneo; also the Kurile and 

 Pribilof Islands (St. Paul Island, May 9, 1911). 



