574 



Adult Female (Archangel, 15th May). Head, neck, breast, and upper parts generally blackish brown, with 

 a faint purplish gloss ; abdomen brownish grey, becoming dark brown on the under tail-coverts ; wings 

 and tail as in the male, but browner; head with a very short crest; forehead tinged with brownish 

 white. 



Adult Male in late summer. The summer plumage of the male, which, as in other Ducks, is retained for a 

 very short time, differs from the winter dress in being browner on the head and neck ; the back and 

 lower neck are as if powdered with greyish white, but this powdering is indistinct ; the nuchal tuft is 

 much shorter than in the winter. 



Young Male. Resembles the old female, but is duller in colour, the head and neck being less distinctly 

 brown in tinge, and the abdomen is whiter and less tinged with brown. 



Young in down (S.E. Ural, 29th July). Crown, nape, neck, and upper parts generally dark olive-brown, 

 unmarked ; a small irregular streak over the eye and a spot on the ear dull greyish yellow ; chin and 

 sides of the neck and abdomen greyish yellow ; lower flanks and lower part of the tail olivaceous ; bill 

 olivaceous green ; legs similarly coloured, but darker ; iris greyish white. 



Generally distributed throughout Europe, but breeding only in the northern districts, the 

 Tufted Duck ranges southward into North Africa in winter. It is also found in Asia as far east 

 as Japan, and ranges south into Southern India. 



In Great Britain it is, as a rule, only a winter visitant ; but it has been recorded as having 

 bred here on several occasions. Mr. A. G. More, in his notes on the birds which have been 

 found breeding in Great Britain, writes (Ibis, 1865, p. 446) as follows : — " Mr. Borrer tells me 

 that a brood of Tufted Ducks was found near Horsham in May 1853, and another at West 

 Grinstead in 1854. Mr. W. A. Slaney writes that the bird is common on the large meres of 

 Stafford and Shropshire, and that he has known of one nest in the latter county. Sir William 

 Milner and Mr. E. Newton have recorded the occurrence of several nests in Nottinghamshire 

 (Zoologist, p. 4440 ; Trans. Tyneside Nat. Club, vol. v. p. 40). And in the ' Zoologist ' (p. 2879) 

 mention is made of a brood observed on Malham Water, in the West Biding of Yorkshire." 

 According to Mr. Hancock (B. of North. & Durh. p. 155) it is "not uncommon in Northumber- 

 land and Durham in the winter season, and has bred three times at Wallington. In 1858 

 Sir W. C. Trevelyan, Bart., informed me that a small Duck had been seen with a brood of eight 

 or nine young that year on a small pond, near the house, at Wallington, but he was not able to 

 determine the species. In the following year Sir W. C. Trevelyan wrote to inform me that the 

 Duck had again appeared at Wallington. At his invitation I visited the spot on the 24th of May, 

 and by the aid of a glass saw both parent birds ; and I distinctly made out that they were Tufted 

 Ducks, male and female." 



In Scotland, according to Mr. Robert Gray (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 386), it is " more frequently 

 obtained in severe winters than in open seasons. This may arise from its habit of keeping out 

 at sea, or well off shore in the firths and estuaries in moderate weather, and coming into our 

 rivers to feed when it is too rough outside. On the Clyde numbers are killed every week 

 throughout the winter and sent to the Glasgow market ; and limited numbers are also shot on 

 some of the inland lochs and ponds from October to March. I have seen small flocks of this 



