74 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



their plumage we were soon able to identify them as Tufted 

 Ducks. 



Of the five reared, two were drakes and three were ducks ; 

 one of the five died when about three months old, and 

 the others gradually acquired the use of their wings, and 

 would fly after me along the garden when called, until 

 one stormy day two of them rose in the air and were, I 

 believe, carried out to sea, as I saw them no more. Another, 

 a drake, afterwards wandered away and was lost; and the 

 only remaining one, a female, I now exhibit alive to the 

 Society. I much regret the loss of the drake, as I hoped to 

 have had them to breed in confinement, and I have a strong 

 impression that they might be perfectly domesticated. I 

 am now endeavouring to procure from the London dealers 

 a live drake, if possible. Some years ago I reared wild 

 ducks from eggs, and the third generation were as tame as 

 ordinary ducks ; they would occasionally take a long flight, 

 but always retained the animus revertendi and well knew 

 their home. 



Bewick, in speaking of the Tufted Duck, states that the 

 female has no crest, and that the flesh is excellent as an 

 article of food. Yarrell, on the contrary, states, that he has 

 seen an old female having some elongation of the occipital 

 feathers, but from the specimen before us, you see that Yarrell 

 is right, as the tuft is quite apparent, though not much 

 developed. 



Yarrell also remarks that they have bred in the Zoological 

 Gardens, London. Our late member, Dr Saxby, says, that in 

 Shetland they are never common, and so shy that they are 

 seldom shot ; while Thompson speaks of them in Ireland as 

 only known as winter visitants. 



I may mention that in the Ihis for October last, Mr A. B. 

 Brooke has recorded the occurrence of two fine broods — eight 

 birds in each — in Butterston Loch, Perthshire, in July 1875, 

 so that in addition to the instance given by Yarrell (B. B., 

 3d ed., vol. iii., p. 354), the present is the third authentic 

 record of the Tufted Duck having bred in this country. 



