246 



BEITISH BIRDS 



Tufted, Duck. 



Fuligula cristata. 



Black, the head 

 and neck with purp- 

 lish gloss ; speculum, 

 flanks, and belly 

 white; bill pale blue; 

 irides brilliant yel- 

 low ; legs and feet 

 dark blue. Length, 

 seventeen inches. 

 Female : dark 



brown ; under parts 

 brownish grey. 



Male changes colour 

 in May. 

 FIG. 83. TUFTED DUCK. ^ natural size. 



Of sea or diving 



ducks (including the mergansers) no fewer than twenty species, 

 referable to nine genera, have been described as ' British.' Of this 

 number nine species are irregular visitants or stragglers, and may 

 be dismissed with a mention of their names : Bed-crested pochard 

 (Fuligula rufina), white-eyed duck (Nyroca ferruginea), Barrow's 

 goldeneye (Clangula islandica), buffel-headed duck (C. albeola), 

 harlequin duck (Cosmonettahistrionica), Steller's duck (Heniconetta 

 Stelleri) ; king eider (Somateria spectabilis) ; surf -scoter (CE demia 

 perspicillata), and hooded merganser (Mergus cucullatus). 



Of the eleven species, referable to six genera, that breed in, or 

 regularly visit, these islands, and may properly be described as 

 British birds, three are mergansers, the least duck -like of the ducks 

 in their curiously modified beaks and grebe-like habits. Of the 

 other eight species, four only are, strictly speaking, sea-ducks, being 

 (on our coasts) exclusively marine in their habits. These are the 

 eider, the long-tailed duck, the common scoter, and the velvet 

 scoter. The tufted duck, pochard, and goldeneye, are marine and 

 freshwater ducks. The scaup is more of a sea-duck than these 

 three, and may be said to be intermediate in its habits between the 

 two groups. 



