TUFTED POCHARD. RED-HEADED POCHARD. 207 



SPECIES 198 THE TUFTED POCHARD. 



Fuligula cristata. Selby. 

 Canard morillon. Temm. 



Tufted Duck. Crested Diver. Whitesided Duck. 

 THIS beautiful duck, smaller in size than the scaup, and pos- 

 sessed of a more graceful form, is at once distinguished as the 

 only species of the Anatidae frequenting our island possessing 

 a crest. More common in occurence than the preceding, the 

 tufted pochard is also more widely distributed, and appears 

 not to be so essentially maritime in its habits, but frequents 

 occasionally inland rivers and lakes, from which situations we 

 have frequently known them to be obtained for the Dublin 

 market. 



Formed and adapted in a peculiar degree for its manner of 

 living by the broad flattened shape of the body, the tufted 

 duck is an expert diver, swimming lightly and buoyantly on 

 the water, and, when occasion requires, sinking so low as to 

 hide the white plumage of the side from view (which we see 

 generally shown on ordinary occasions), and to expose only 

 a slight line of the back over the surface. 



Richly marked in its plumage, with the richly glossed pur- 

 ple of the head and neck, and the gracefully curved crest, 

 the tufted duck is a species possessed of considerable attrac- 

 tions, and is one appearing to the best advantage on or- 

 namental lakes. On one occasion we had the pleasure of 

 observing three detached flocks, averaging from fifteen to 

 twenty birds in each, accompanied by equal numbers of 

 the golden-eyes, floating with the tide at the Bar of Dublin ; 

 and very beautiful they appeared ranged in line seven or 

 nine abreast as they entered the mouth of the harbour, so 

 motionless in appearance, and rendered so conspicuous by 

 the contrast of two or three adult male golden-eyes in each 

 flock ; or at times when a herring-gull or kittiwake settled 

 down into the midst of the flock and joined their company. 



Habitat Northern Europe. 



SPECIES 199 REDHEADED POCHARD. 



Fuligula ferina. Selby. 

 Canard milouin. Temm. 



THIS unobtrusive species, possessing none of the beautiful 

 attractions that distinguish the two preceding birds, is the 

 most common of all our maritime ducks upon the eastern coasts 



