DUCK GROUP 



above, with an indistinct paler spot on each side of the lower part of 

 the back, and a somewhat similar eyebrow-stripe, while their under 

 surface is huffish white meriting into dusky brown behind. 



Unlike the scaup-duck, the present bird is restricted to the Old 

 World, where its breeding-range extends from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific seaboard, from latitudes 70 in Europe and 62 in Eastern Asia 

 southwards to about latitude 50 . With this more southern extension 

 of the breeding-range, as compared w ith that of the last species, it is 

 not surprising to find the tufted duck nesting localh- in many parts of 



the British Islands, to which, 

 however, it is mainly a 

 winter-visitor. In England 

 nests liave, for instance, 

 been recorded from Sussex, 

 Worcestershire, Nottingham- 

 shire (where there is a regular 

 breeding-place in which the 

 birds are specially protected), 

 Shropshire, Staffordshire, 

 Norfolk, Yorkshire, and 

 Northumberland. In Scot- 

 land the species breeds on 

 many lakes, and has been 

 recently recorded as doing 

 so in Merionethshire, and 

 also in Uist, in tiie Hebrides. 

 Irish nesting-records are now 

 cjuite numerous, and include 

 fourteen counties, in many 

 of which the number of resident birds appears to be decidedly on the 

 increase. Nor is this all, for whereas this duck in winter visits southern 

 Europe, the Mediterranean countries, northern India, and upper 

 Burma, it also ranges far up the Nile Valley and not improbably breeds 

 in the Abyssinian highlands in the neighbourhood of Lake Ashangi. 

 Such a southerly breeding-range for a member of this group is very 

 remarkable. In Ireland, and probably also in England, the migrating 

 flights of the tufted duck do not generally make their appearance 

 before December, and while most depart by April, a few linger on till 

 May. In India the species makes its appearance in October and 

 November, and wings its way northward in the following March, except 

 occasionally, when it may linger a few weeks longer. 



TLI- TKU IJLCK. 



