RUFOUS-CRESTED DUCK. 



npHIS is a species of the Old World, and is very ques- 

 tionably included in the North American Fauna. So 

 seldom has it been obtained within our limits that it can 

 hardly be considered even as a straggler; the few speci- 

 mens known having been seen hanging in the market 

 in New York for sale, but the locality from whence they 

 came was very doubtful, and it was only the fact that 

 the birds were in the flesh which gave rise to the thought 

 that they might have been killed within our boundaries. 

 Many European game birds are exhibited for sale in 

 our Eastern markets during the winter that were never 

 killed on our shores, as invoices of them are brought by 

 nearly every steamer, and it is only because it would be 

 considered doubtful that anyone should send a Wild 

 Duck to America, it being an act very near akin to ship- 

 ping coals to Newcastle, that it became a fair supposition 

 that these specimens of this Duck came to our shores by 

 means of their own propelling powers, unassisted by 

 man. 



The Rufous-crested Duck is a very handsome species 

 and in the Old World is found in southern and eastern 

 Europe, occasionally straggling into the northern parts 

 of central Europe, and also is an inhabitant of Northern 

 Africa and India. It frequents often fresh-water lakes 

 and marshes, and is very shy, and has a note resembling 

 the harsh croak of the crow. It is not a diver, and feeds 

 from the bottom, like the ^Mallard, by tilting its hind- 

 quarters, and holding itself in position by paddling with 



