TUFTED DUCK. 1 65 



Where the Duck dabbles 'mid rustlinor sedge. 



— A 71 Evening with Wordsivorth. 



The Shoveller takes its name from the broad expansion of its 

 beak, which is abundantly supplied with nerves, and highly sensitive, 

 enabling it the more readily to detect nutritive food. It is excellent 

 eating ; " its flesh being tender and superior in flavour," says 

 Audubon himself, "to the celebrated Canvas-back Duck of America." 



The Shoveller is very rarely met with in Herefordshire. Mr. 

 Lingwood says in his notes, " killed at the Mynde, 1858 ; " and a 

 specimen was also shot in the neighbourhood of Leominster a few 

 years since. 



Genus— FULTGULA. 



[FuLiGULA RUFiNA — Red-crestcd Pochard.] 



A rare winter visitor. 



FULIGULA CRISTATA— Tufted Duck. 



This Duck is a regular winter visitor to our coasts, estuaries, 

 and fresh-water rivers, lakes, and ponds. It is rarely kept in 

 confinement, but is very ornamental. It is a round, plump bird, 

 swims low in the water and dives so well, that it is difficult to 

 catch it in the decoys. It obtains its food chiefly by diving, and this 

 consists of aquatic insects, roots, buds and seeds of plants, shell- 

 fish, small frogs and their spawn. The flesh is very good eating, 

 and this Duck is sometimes called Black Wigeon for this reason. 



The Tufted Duck is not an infrequent visitor to Herefordshire 

 in the winter months. The specimen in the Museum was formerly 

 in the collection of Mr. Moss, of Ross, and is the one noted by 

 Mr. Lingwood as a Herefordshire example. Two were obtained 

 in the county during the winter 1879-80 — one from the river Lugg, 

 near Moreton, and the other from the Wye, at Whitney. Mr. T. 

 L. Mayos, of Llangattock, has also shot one on a pond near his 

 house. 



