NYROCA FULIGULA 287 



very black plumage making it very easily distinguishable. Recently 

 it has been recorded as having been shot in Burma, near Mandalay, 

 and it is also recorded from Bhamo, Arakan, and the Chindwin by 

 Hopwood and Harington. Gates, in 'Game-Birds,' records that out of 

 the bag of 5(J'2 ducks already referred to as having been shot by Capt. 

 Johnson and party, no less than 122 were of this species ; Major 

 Eippon also mformed him that this duck v^^as to be found all over the 

 Shan States, though Gates himself did not meet with it anywhere in 

 Lower Burma. It will doubtless prove to occur plentifully throughout 

 the northern part at least of that province, and probably in small 

 numbers, as far south as the north of Tenasserim. 



Nidification. — The Tafted Duck breeds, as far as we know, 

 throughout the northern portion of its range, and in some parts very 

 far south. Thus it is known with comparative certainty to breed in 

 some of the upland lakes of Abyssinia, in Southern Europe in many 

 countries, and in Central Asia. The nest is typically rather a slight 

 affair, made more of grass and bents, and less often of reeds, rushes 

 and water-plants, than are most ducks' nests. The lining, which is 

 generally very plentiful, is said by Dresser to be of " sooty brownish- 

 black down, having all greyish-white centres." The nest may lie 

 placed either close to the water or actually at the edge, never, as far 

 as I can learn from anything recorded, actually in the water itself. 

 The water may be either fresh or salt, an inland lake far from the 

 shore, or an estuary or creek of the sea itself ; as a rule, the nest is 

 placed amongst either grass or bushes, but sometimes quite out in the 

 open, amongst stones, etc. This sort of situation is not, however, it 

 would seem, as often selected by the Tufted Duck as it is by the 

 Scaup, nor can I find any mention of its placing its nest in holes as 

 does the latter bird. 



Dr. Leverktihn sends me an interesting note on the breeding of 

 this duck. He says {in epistold) : — 



" Fuligula fuligiila is a very common bird on the great lakes of 

 Hungary, Slavonia, Germany, and Bulgaria, and I have taken many 

 of its nests during the month of May. The duck, when frightened 

 and leaving its nest, covers the eggs with all the contents — which 

 there may be at the moment — of her intestinal tractus ; for the 

 oologist it is hard work to clean them afterwards. 



" One nest I found was covered in, in a very beautiful manner. 



