52 WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 
sometimes, but incorrectly, called the Golden-eye, this 
name being ysed and wanted for the very different 
species described above. 
The bill is nearly all of a blue-grey colour, only the 
tip being black, and is much brighter in the old males 
than in others. 
The length is about eighteen inches, the wing eight 
inches, the shank one and-a-half, and the bill just 
under two. 
The female is a little smaller. 
The Tufted Pochard inhabits the northern part of 
the Old World, breeding in the north and: migrating 
south in winter as far as Abyssinia, China and India, 
and straying even to the Malay Peninsula and 
Polynesia. It is suspected of breeding in the hills in 
Abyssinia and may doso in India. It is rather a late 
breeder, laying in June ; the eggs number eight and are 
pale olive green. As it has bred and multiplied most 
freely on the London park waters, and numbers fly 
about there unpinioned, it would be a good idea 
to introduce it on lakes in Indian hill stations. In 
India it is common in the Deccan, Central Provinces, 
and Chota Nagpur ; it is also found in the Indo-Gan- 
getic plain, but not abundantly. It does not appear to 
go further south in India than the northern part of the 
Coimbatore district. In Manipur it has been found 
very abundant, and has also been met with near 
Mandalay. 
It commonly occurs singly or insmall flocks, but some- 
times in large numbers, and frequents open sheets of 
water ; it is a very fine diver. On land it moves more 
awkwardly than any Pochard I know, hobbling as if 
lame in both feet. It is partial to animal food, and said 
to be not first-class for eating. It breeds more freely 
in captivity than do Pochards in general, and in the 
London Zoological Gardens in 1849 crossed with the 
White-eye, the resulting hybrids continuing to breed 
