TUFTED DTJCK. 75 



mollusca, young frogs and tadpoles, and the roots, seeds, and 

 buds of plants. 



These birds breed along the stony shores of the sides of 

 inland waters, both lakes and rivers, among the cover of 

 vegetation, more or less thick, with which such are usually 

 bordered. 



The receptacle for the eggs, for it can hardly be called a 

 nest, is composed of stalks and grasses. It is not made till 

 the end of May or beginning of June. 



The eggs vary in number from eight to ten. They are of 

 a pale buff colour, with a tinge of green. 



The male bird leaves the female after she has begun to sit. 



This species, as Frederick Bond, Esq. has informed me, 

 paired with the Ferruginous Duck, as I have mentioned in 

 the account of the latter, in the year 1853 or 1854, in the 

 gardens of the Zoological Society. 



It is a thick-set bird. Male; weight, about twenty-five 

 ounces; Montagu says that they vary, according to the condition 

 they are in, from twenty-one to thirty-one ounces; length, 

 one foot five inches; bill, deep bluish lead-colour, a portion 

 of the tip and the tooth black: it is rather widened towards 

 the point. Iris, golden yellow. There is a long dependant 

 crest of very narrow black feathers, with purple and green 

 reflections. The head, neck, and nape, are of the same colour. 

 At the chin is a small triangular-shaped white mark; throat 

 and breast, on the upper part black, the feathers tipped with 

 grey; below, the latter is glossy white, or cream-coloured 

 white, the thighs blackish. Back, dusky olive brown, with 

 a slight violet tinge, very minutely speckled with grey, or 

 yellowish white, which gives a subdued tone to the colouring 

 of this part, the lower portion black. 



The wings have the first and second quill feathers of nearly 

 equal length; greater wing coverts, white, the tips broadly 

 finished with black; lesser wing coverts, dusky olive black. 

 The first three or four primaries pale brown, dusky olive 

 black on the outer webs and the tips, the rest more or less 

 white towards the base; of the secondaries the four or five 

 inner ones are dusky olive black, the remainder forming the 

 speculum white, with greenish black tips, and slightly edged 

 with the same colour; tertiaries, dusky greenish olive black, 

 minutely spotted with grey or yellowish white. The tail, 

 which consists of fourteen feathers, and is short and somewhat 

 wedge-shaped, is black; upper tail coverts, black; under tail 



