BUFFEL-HEADED DUCK. 



589 



occasionally visits the Bermudas, but there is no evidence that it has ever 

 occurred on any part of the continent of Europe. 



The Buffel-headed Duck has no ally nearer than the Golden-eye, and 

 resembles that species in most of its habits, especially in its choice of a 

 nesting-place. It breeds in hollow trees, sometimes as high as twenty feet 

 from the ground, and occasionally in the hollow of a fallen log on the level 

 of the ground. Like the Golden-eye, it makes no nest, but lays its eggs 

 on the rotten wood, with abundance of down plucked from its own breast. 

 Its food consists of grass, mollusks, and other marine animals and vege- 

 tation. Its note is described as a mere croak, feebler than that of the 

 Golden-eye. 



The eggs of the Buffel-headed Duck are from six to ten in number, 

 pale greenish grey in colour, and vary in length from 2'05 to T95 inch, 

 and in breadth from 1/5 to 1'35 inch. They very closely resemble eggs of 

 the Gadwall (figured on Plate 66), but it is probable that the down is quite 

 different to that of this bird. The Buffel-headed Duck, breeding in hollow 

 trees, has doubtless pale grey down like that of the Golden-eye. 



The Buffel-headed Duck is not much larger than a Teal, and might be 

 broadly described as a small Golden-eye, with the white patch on the side 

 of the head very large, and situated behind the eye instead of in front of it. 

 The females of the two species also closely resemble each other, but, in 

 addition to the smaller size, the female Buffel-head may be at once distin- 

 guished by the large white patch on the side of the head, extending from 

 the eye across the ear-coverts. In the Golden-eye there is no such white 

 patch on the head, which in the female is of a uniform brown. American 

 ornithologists have neglected the obvious duty of describing the immature 

 plumage. 



