150 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
—say 10 to 15 feet or shallower; which abound in their 
favourite food-supples—plant-life, crustacea, and larve; 
which likewise contain islands, or have their shores deeply 
clad in luxuriant vegetable growth—aquatic or semi-aquatic 
preferred—and selecting the lochs at the lower elevations 
above sea-level to mountain lochs or tarns. The Tufted 
Duck being a true diving duck (“Doucker” or “Dooker” as 
it is named in common phrase with the Golden Eye, and 
some other species of Fuligulw), it prefers comparatively 
shallow water of some expanse, and usually places its nest 
amid the densest growths of water- or land-plants it can find. 
According to the relative size and depth of various habitats 
will their numbers be small or great, if other amenities are 
present. Each pond, loch, or reservoir will hold its requisite 
supply, and rapid increase beyond the power of each to carry 
will result in (possibly sudden) decrease there, and sudden 
appearance elsewhere. 
How admirably the sheets of water which at present 
attract them for breeding purposes fulfil these conditions in 
the eastern areas. Principal among these are :— 
Yetholm and Hoselaw Lochs in Roxburghshire (“ Tweed ”). 
Lochs of various sizes in Selkirkshire. 
Loch Leven in Kinross (Forth), and numerous smaller 
sheets of water in Fife. Loch Lindores (Tay), and the 
following in the same drainage area:—Lochs Dupplin, and 
mill-ponds in the same district. Loch Butterston and others 
near Dunkeld. 
Lochs in the neighbourhood of Forfar—Rescobie, ete. 
Loch Skene, Loch o’ Park, and artificial lakes on Haddo, 
Aberdeenshire. 
Loch Stemster, in Caithness. 
And in the western areas :—The lochs which lie close to 
the Solway Firth in Wigtownshire and Kirkeudbright, and 
a group of lakes and reservoirs which lie near the eastern 
county marches of Renfrewshire (“Clyde”), and in a minor 
degree Loch Vassapol in Tiree. 
These are the presently occupied head-centres of the 
Tufted Duck in Scotland, and it is still spreading and 
increasing annually. 
