448 TUFTED DUCK. 
in winter; at which season it ranges through Africa as far as 
Abyssinia. In summer it fréquents Northern Asia, nearly up to 
lat. 70°, and during cold weather large numbers visit Japan, China, 
and India down to Coimbatore, while wanderers reach the Malay 
Archipelago and even Eastern Polynesia. 
As a rule incubation begins towards the end of May or early in 
June, the nest being concealed under a bush, in a tuft of grass or 
sedge, and sometimes in a peat-hole ; the 8-13 eggs are of a greenish- 
buff colour: measurements 2°3 by 1°5 in. Incubation lasts about 
23 days. The call-note on alighting is rendered by Mr. Whitaker 
as currugh, currugh, uttered gutturally ; and he called my attention, 
when at Rainworth, to the fact—which he believed to be invariable 
—that the female is the first to rise when both birds are together 
on the water. The Tufted Duck dives freely and frequently. For 
the table it is tolerably good when it has been eating aquatic plants, 
but as soon as it has taken to animal food, either on fresh or salt 
water, the result is not satisfactory. Feeding takes place soon after 
twilight, and also in the early morning. Pinioned birds have bred 
on the ponds of the London Zoological Gardens and other orna- 
mental waters ; and at the former a Tufted crossed with a Ferruginous 
Duck in 1849, the hybrids afterwards breeding either zzéer se or 
with the parents till 1861. In the British Museum there is a 
hybrid presented by Mr. R. J. Howard from a brood produced 
between the Tufted Duck and the Pochard in 1886 on a reservoir 
in Woodfold Park ; and a similar bird is in the Belfast Museum. 
The adult male has the elongated crest, head and neck glossy 
purplish-black ; breast and upper parts duller black, with a green 
tinge on the secondaries; wing-patch white with a black border ; 
belly and flanks white, washed with grey towards the vent; under 
tail-coverts black ; bill slate-grey with a black nail ; irides brilliant 
golden-yellow (whence the bird is sometimes called ‘‘ Golden-eye ”) ; 
legs and toes slate-blue, webs black. Length 17°25 in. ; wing 8 in. 
Mr. Whitaker says that a paired male began to change into female 
plumage in May, but an unattached drake was as bright as ever 
until the end of August, when he became less white on the flanks. 
It is, perhaps, not generally known that the drakes of many other 
species retain nearly full dress throughout the summer, when they 
have not mated. The female is rather smaller, and is sooty-brown 
on those parts which are black in the male, the under surface being 
brown barred with grey ; immature females (as well as young males) 
have the forehead sprinkled with white after the autumn moult until 
the following April. 
