TUFTED DUCK. 585 



but never venturing to take wing until she has risen from the water, and 

 then following her to the next pond, or in her circuitous course up to the 

 head of the water, when she will often wheel round, and passing behind 

 any cover that may happen to be on the side of the pond, drop down again 

 with her faithful attendant not far from the spot where she was originally 

 disturbed. During the daytime they are very quiet, floating on the water 

 near the middle of the pond, sometimes sleeping with their heads under their 

 wings, and occasionally lazily preening their feathers. When at rest the 

 male is very conspicuous, and seems to float very light on the water, his 

 white breast-feathers fluffed up over his wings so as almost to hide them. 

 Sometimes as he leans over on the side away from the observer he looks 

 quite white, and then as he rolls back again to preen the other side he 

 suddenly changes into black. When his head is erect, the black crest is 

 easily seen. Towards evening they begin to feed. Exactly as twilight 

 marks the approach of night, they rise from the pond where they have 

 spent the day, and fly up stream to other ponds to feed, returning in the 

 morning ; Whitaker says, " flying at a great pace and a good height in the 

 air. In the morning, after their return to the ponds, they may be seen 

 actively diving for weeds, usually remaining under water about fifteen 

 seconds, and resorting to the middle of the pond. In the afternoon they 

 rest or may be seen preening their feathers, but towards flight-time they 

 become restless, frequently calling and taking short flights until the time 

 arrives to go, when with loud cries they rise together, and rush on swift 

 pinions to their breeding-places." 



The flight is strong and rapid, and the quick beat of the wings against 

 the air can be heard at some distance. They are easy to shoot, as they fly 

 close to the water for some distance after rising. Both when they rise 

 from the water and when they settle again the two sexes call to each other 

 with a harsh grating cry, kr-kr-kr. 



The Tufted Duck is a late breeder ; in Nottinghamshire the eggs are 

 seldom laid before the end of May or, in late seasons, the beginning of June, 

 but in Norfolk they are at least a fortnight earlier. On the 14th of May 

 last year Lord Walsingham showed me two nests at Thompson Mere on 

 the Merton estate, one containing six eggs and the other two ; the former 

 nest also contained the egg of a Pochard, and there was a nest of that 

 species of Duck, containing ten eggs, not many yards away. The nest is 

 sometimes placed under a bush by the side of a pond, sometimes amongst 

 the rushes, and often in the centre of the tufts, tussocks, or hassocks of 

 sedge, which grow to a height of two or three feet above the water. It is 

 a mere hollow lined with dry sedge or grass, and after the full complement 

 of eggs are laid, and the duck has begun to sit, with down. The number 

 of eggs is usually ten or twelve, but sometimes only eight are laid, and 

 occasionally as many as thirteen. They vary in length from 2'4 to 2-15 



VOL. in. 2 Q 



