354 ANATIDJJ. 



account of the facility with which it dives, and gets back 

 in the pipe towards the open entrance and the pool. Its 

 food is similar to that of the Scaup Duck, but, unlike that 

 species, its flesh is generally excellent so much so, that 

 from its goodness this bird is sometimes called the Black 

 Wigeon. 



Tufted Ducks bred in confinement in the ponds at the 

 Gardens of the Zoological Society, during the summers 

 of 1839, 1840, 1841, and again in 1845 ; but it is rare to 

 meet with any record of their breeding in a wild state in 

 Britain. The egg figured by Mr. Hewitson was obtained 

 from Holland, where a few pairs of these birds are scat- 

 tered during the season among the many inland waters, 

 and breed on their borders amongst the thick cover which 

 generally skirts them. They lay from eight to ten eggs, 

 in shape rather pointed at one end, of a pale buff colour, 

 tinged with green ; measuring two inches and one-eighth 

 in length, by one inch and three-eighths in width. 



A pair bred in June, 1854, laying seven or eight eggs 

 in a nest formed of flags at the edge of the lake at 

 Osberton, Nottinghamshire, the seat of G. S. Foljambe, 

 Esq. 



Besides being found generally over England, even to 

 the southern shores during winter, it is also found along 

 the eastern coast of Ireland, but leaves both countries, 

 and also Scotland, in spring, for higher northern latitudes. 

 Faber includes it among the birds of Iceland, but it does 

 not appear to go farther to the westward. The Tufted 

 Duck is not found in North America, though sometimes 

 so stated. Mr. Richard Dann says, " This Duck is by no 

 means common either in Norway or Sweden. I have met 

 with it in the neighbourhood of Lulea, on the Bothnian 

 Gulf, where it breeds ; and in spring it appears on the 

 coast and on the adjacent lakes and rivers in the south 



