122 The Water-fowl Family 



Measurements — Length, 20 inches ; wing, 10 inches ; tail, 3.75 

 inches; culmen, 1.90 inches; tarsus, 1.50 inches. 



Young male — Similar to adult female, but crest smaller and more 

 reddish ; the border of wing distinctly white, and white scapular 

 patch plainly indicated. 



Downy young — Upper parts, dull olive-gray; lower parts and 

 scapular spots, pale yellowish gray ; yellowish gray superciliary 

 stripe ; olive-gray stripes on lores, one passing above supercili- 

 ary stripe and the other below eye to auriculars. 



Eggs — Eight to ten, pea-green, measuring 2.20 by 1.70 inches. 



Habitat — Eastern hemisphere, from the Mediterranean basin to 

 Turkestan and India, breeding irregularly north to Scotland, the 

 Kola Peninsula, and on the Yenisei River, Siberia, to within the 

 Arctic circle. Accidental in eastern United States. 



The only claim of this species to rank as an 

 American bird is that on February 2, 1872, Mr. 

 George A. Boardman found a young male in Ful- 

 ton Market, New York, and this bird is believed 

 to have been shot on Long Island Sound. 



It is a rather shy and solitary bird, not found 

 in large flocks or associating much with other 

 ducks. Not being an expert at diving it fre- 

 quents shallow, fresh-water marshes, feeding on 

 water-plants of various kinds. It breeds on small 

 islands in the Rhone Delta of southern France, 

 where Mr. W. Eagle Clarke found two nests on 

 May 17, 1894. They were on the ground in 

 the centre of thick and tangled masses of shrub- 

 bery, and were reached by covered passages fully v 

 two feet long, which had been worked through 

 the bottom of the bushes. These nests, com- 

 posed of down, held ten and seventeen eggs ; but 



