488 Anatidce. 



above, perhaps the most common. It is also sometimes called the 

 ' Ked-eyed Poker/ from the peculiar colour of the eye, a peculiarity 

 not shared in by any other British bird. Pochards, from the 

 backward position of their legs, are awkward and clumsy on land. 

 They swim, however, very rapidly, but deeply immersed in the 

 water, and are especially gifted with diving powers. They are 

 also, though somewhat heavy, very quick and powerful on the 

 wing, but fly in a closely packed body, and not in line or in the 

 triangular shape that we see in wild ducks. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey 

 says that Pochards, in common with most of the diving ducks, 

 when alighting on the water, curve the tail downward, and the 

 feet forward, like a Swan, against the water, to check the impetus 

 of flight as they tear along the surface.* It is a well-known 

 species in Wiltshire. Mr. Herbert Smith pronounces it common 

 on the Bo wood water. The Rev. A. P. Morres regards it as quite 

 common in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, where it is found in 

 flocks every winter: and as an annual visitor to the lake at 

 Stourton. The Rev. C. Soames reported it as shot at Stoney 

 Bridge, near Marlborough, on January 20, 1881 ; but I need not 

 enumerate further instances, when it occurs so frequently in all 

 parts of the county. 



197. FERRUGINOUS DUCK (Fuligula nyroca). 



This is not a very common visitor to England, for North- 

 eastern Europe and Northern Asia appear to be its home ; it 

 wanders however, in winter, westward and southward, being 

 abundant throughout the Mediterranean and in Northern Africa, 

 and is reported to be the commonest species in Malta, as it 

 undoubtedly is in Egypt, whence the name given it by Buffon, 

 la Sarcelle d'Egypte. But the most persevering flights penetrate 

 in some numbers as far west as the British Isles, and as it 

 prefers the fresh-water lakes and ponds of the interior to salt 

 water, it is as likely to occur in Wiltshire as in any other county. 

 I have, however, but three instances of its appearance within our 

 * The Fowler in Ireland,' p. 100. 



