404 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Habits. — In the warm districts of the Mediterranean basin 

 the Red-crested Pochard is a resident, but further east in the much 

 more rigorous climate of Russian Turkestan it is a migrant, and 

 in autumn retires southwards to India to spend the winter. These 

 two countries are its greatest head-quarters ; nowhere else is it so 

 abundant. Its migrations into India begin towards the end of 

 October, and gradually the bird spreads south through November, 

 not reaching the extreme limits until early in December. It leaves 

 the most southerly districts towards the end of March, and the 

 northern provinces during the first half of April. The Red-crested 

 Pochard is a thorough fresh-water Duck, and haunts by preference 

 still deep broads and lakes where the bottom is full of weed and 

 the shore covered with coarse grass, sedge, and rushes. It also 

 frequents the wide, slow-running reaches of rivers where plenty 

 of submerged weeds grow near the shore. Hume states that it 

 sometimes pays fleeting visits to any streamlet pool whilst on 

 passage. At its winter quarters it is decidedly gregarious, usually 

 forming into flocks of from ten to thirty birds, but sometimes they 

 congregate thousands strong on very large sheets of water. This 

 Duck is remarkably shy and wary, taking wing the moment 

 danger threatens, and is considered by those sportsmen who have 

 had much experience with it to be the most troublesome fowl to 

 work. Very rarely flocks composed entirely of males have been 

 seen, but as a rule the sexes congregate indiscriminately. The 

 flight of this Pochard is strong and rapid, but the bird is slow to 

 get under weigh, and flies rather heavily. The rustle made by 

 the rapid beats of its short wing is a very characteristic rushing 

 sound, enabling the experienced sportsman to identify the bird as 

 it passes overhead in the darkness. The Red-crested Pochard is 

 perhaps most at home in the deep water where it dives for its 

 food, disappearing from time to time with remarkable speed, and 

 with a pertinacity unsurpassed. It obtains most of its food by 

 diving, and rarely visits land to feed, although Hume remarks 

 that he has sometimes met with it walking about the banks 

 a few yards from the water's edge, searching for insects and 

 grazing. Although it may be constantly seen feeding by day, 

 much of its food is obtained at night, and many birds start off at 

 dusk to visit localities where food is more plentiful than in the 



