off. When the shades of evening begin to fall the Tufted Ducks get restless, 

 and sit up on the water flapping their wings, or take short flights and splash 

 down into the water again, continually calling to each other with their harsh 

 'grr-grrr-grrrr* When dusk sets in they rise in a body, flying along the 

 surface of the water for some distance before rising in the air, and return to 

 their breeding -places, coming back again to their feeding-grounds in the 

 morning. 



The Tufted Duck does not commence nesting operations until late in 

 May in Scotland, though it does so somewhat earlier in more southern 

 localities. The nest is not far from the water as a rule, and is generally 

 placed in the centre of some tussock of rank grass or clump of rushes ; a low 

 grassy island covered with rushes, coarse grass, and clumps of sedge is a 

 favourite site. The nest is little more than a slight hollow lined with dry 

 grass, the down being added as the eggs are laid ; I have, however, on two 

 or three occasions, observed nests of the Tufted Duck containing highly 

 incubated eggs, in which the lining was composed entirely of dry grass 

 without one scrap of down. 



The number of eggs laid is usually ten or twelve rarely more. They 

 are pale greenish grey in colour, and average 2*30 inches in length and r62 

 inch in breadth. Small eggs of the Tufted Duck might be confused with 

 eggs of the Pochard, but the down of the latter is larger and paler in colour, 

 and the sites chosen for nesting are somewhat different. The down of the 

 Tufted Duck is greyish black with slightly paler centres to the flakes, and 

 has no white tips. 



