POCHARD. 239 



Family ANATID^E. Genus FuLiGULA. 



Sub-family FULIGULIN^. 



POCHARD. 



FULIGULA FERINA (Linnaus). 

 Single Brooded. Laying Season, May. 



BRITISH BREEDING AREA: The Pochard breeds in 

 Lancashire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, some of the 

 Midland Counties, Dorset, and perhaps most abundantly 

 of all in Norfolk. In Scotland it is known to breed in 

 South Perthshire and in Fifeshire ; whilst in Ireland it 

 does so in Cos. Sligo, Antrim, and Tipperary. 



BREEDING HABITS : It is difficult to say whether the 

 Pochards that breed with us draw south in winter, as in 

 autumn large numbers of this species visit our islands 

 and intermingle with them. The breeding haunts of 

 this species are large open sheets of water where plenty 

 of cover in the shape of reeds, rushes, sedges, iris, and 

 the like clothe the margin, or where the pools are 

 surrounded by slightly higher ground covered with heath, 

 furze, and tufts of rushes and coarse grass. The Pochard 

 is certainly a most social species during the breeding 

 season, and several nests may often be found close 

 together. The nest of this Duck is always made near 

 fresh water, and in many instances is a floating structure 

 built on a mass of fallen vegetation several yards from 

 shore, or in a tussock surrounded by shallow water. A 

 favourite situation is in a tussock of vegetation of some 

 kind, notably carex, less frequently Scirpus lacustrts. 

 Sometimes it is made amongst a bed of flags or iris, or 

 in a crown of rushes. The nsst is made of dry grass, 

 sedge, broken rushes and flags, or any similar aquatic 

 vegetation readily obtainable, and lined with down and 



