352 ANATID,E. 



our rivers and other fresh-waters in considerable numbers, 

 it is considered a difficult Duck to take in a decoy on ac- 

 count 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 summer of 

 1839-40, and 41, and again in 1845 ; but I do not remem- 

 ber to have met 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 scattered 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. 



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 

 of Sweden in small numbers." Linnaeus in his Tour 



