66 FERTUTGINOTTS DUCK-. 



specimen was purchased in the Cambridge market. Several 

 have been bought in London. 



This bird has been observed in Orkney, though very rarely. 

 In Scotland Sir William Jardine procured one, but only one, 

 in the Edinburgh market. 



In September and October this Pochard migrates southward, 

 and returns in March and April. 



The present species is kept well in confinement, if provided 

 with water. It is reported to be very good to eat. 



It swims with the greatest expertness, and dives equally 

 well, remaining a long time below the surface. In flight it 

 is somewhat heavy. It generally flies low, except when on 

 its migration. 



It feeds in the mornings and evenings, and at night, if 

 there be moonlight, the roots, buds, shoots, and seeds of 

 various water-plants composing its food, together with frogs, 

 water-insects, and the fry of fish. 



The note is a 'curr, curr.' 



This Duck, like the others of its kindred, builds its nest 

 near rivers, ponds, and marshes. It is placed among, and 

 composed of, reeds, and other such materials. The male bird 

 leaves the female soon after she has begun to sit. The nest 

 is well supplied with down from the breast of the parent 

 mother, as a lining. 



The eggs of this species are white, with a slight tinge of 

 green, and nine or ten in number. They are laid by the 

 beginning of June, and are hatched in twenty-two or twenty- 

 three days. 



As Frederick Bond, Esq. has informed me, the Ferruginous 

 Duck bred in the year 1854, in the gardens of the Zoological 

 Society, London ; and that it paired in that or the preceding 

 year with the Tufted Duck. 



The female conducts her brood to the water as soon as 

 hatched, and there provides them for the present with food. 



Male; length, one foot four inches to one foot four and 

 a half; bill, dark bluish grey, the tooth dusky; iris, white; 

 the head, which is small, and neck, deep chesnut red: this 

 is succeeded by a band of darker colour, or blackish brown, 

 which, about the nape, runs into the colour of the back. 

 Chin, partly white, dull in colour; throat and breast on the 

 upper part, bright ferruginous, the latter below yellowish 

 white or white, the sides dusky with broad pale grey or 

 ferruginous brown edges; back, dusky blackish brown, with 



