ANATID.t. 



441 



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THE RED-CRESTED POCHARD. 



Netta rufina (Pallas), 



The Red-crested Pochard is a southern and eastern species which 

 was first noticed as a wanderer to the British Islands by J. Hunt, who 

 figured a female killed in Norfolk in July 181S; and eight or nine 

 examples have since been obtained in that county, chiefly in winter. 

 Others have been taken along the east coast between Berwick-on- 

 Tweed and the mouth of the Thames ; Devon and Cornwall have 

 each contributed one ; there is a specimen in the British Museum 

 from Pembrokeshire ; and a male was shot on October 9th 1897 in 

 Westmoreland. In Scotland one was obtained in Argyllshire in 

 January 1862 ; in Ireland one in co. Kerry on January i8th 1881. 



This Pochard seldom occurs on the waters of Denmark, Northern 

 Germany, Holland or Belgium, while in Switzerland it is chiefly 

 found on the lakes of the eastern cantons ; but though rare in the 

 north of France, it is not uncommon in the Rhone delta, where 

 Messrs. W. E. Clarke and T. Laidlaw found it breeding. In the 

 Spanish Peninsula it is almost confined to the lakes on the east side 

 and those in the Balearic Islands. In the southern half of Italy it 



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