384 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family ANATHXE. Genus NETTA. 



Subfamily 



RED=CRESTED POCHARD. 



NETTA EUFINA (Pallas). 

 PLATE XXXVIII. 



Anas rufina, Pallas, Eeise, ii. app. p. 713 (1773). 

 Aythya rufina (Pall.), Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 109 (1852). 



Fuligula rufina (Pall.), Dresser, B. Eur. vi, p. 559, pi. 435 (1873) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. 

 ed. 4, iv. p. 403 (1885) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 567 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. 

 Fig. Brit. B. pt. x. (1889) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 166 (1894) ; 

 Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 43, pi. 14 (1896). 



Netta rufina (Pall.), Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 328 (1895) ; Sharpe, Handb. 

 B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 2 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British : The Bed-crested Pochard is a 

 rare winter visitor to the British Islands, chiefly to England. Perhaps fifty 

 examples have been either obtained or seen in the United Kingdom ; of these no 

 less than eighteen were observed in a single flock on the Thames, near Erith. 

 It is most frequently observed in the district lying between the Thames and the 

 Humber, especially in Norfolk, which has contributed some eight or nine examples. 

 Odd birds have been obtained as far west as Devon, Cornwall, and Pembroke, 

 and as far north as Northumberland and Westmoreland. One example is recorded 

 from Scotland (Argyllshire, January, 1862), and one from Ireland (Co. Kerry, 

 January, 1881). Foreign: South-western Pa] ae arctic region ; Oriental region in 

 winter. The Eed-crested Pochard is of accidental occurrence only in the Baltic 

 Provinces, Pomerania, Poland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, and Switzer- 

 land. It breeds locally in the Spanish Peninsula, chiefly in the east, in the 

 Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily, Italy, Central and Southern Germany, the 

 valley of the Danube, and Southern Russia. South of the Mediterranean it 

 breeds on the lakes of Northern Africa, but becomes very rare in the east. In 

 Asia it breeds in Turkestan, Kashmir, and North Persia. It is a rare winter 

 visitor to the extreme east of the Mediterranean. The birds breeding in Turkestan 

 and Persia pass through Afghanistan on migration, and winter in India. It has 

 once been recorded from North America (New York Market, February, 1872). 



Allied forms. None of sufficient propinquity to call for notice. 



