156 Order VIII 



the bird visits North America and other countries, but 

 America has a Wigeon of its own. The Mallard, Teal, 

 and Wigeon are our chief ducks for the market, sea-ducks 

 and diving ducks being mostly uneatable. 



Subfamily Puligulinae, or Sea-Ducks 



The Pochard or Dunbird (Nyroca ferina) has cer- 

 tainly increased as a breeding species in Britain of 

 late years, perhaps, as is doubtless the case with many 

 birds, in consequence of the check imposed by gun 

 licences. But the increase is nothing compared with 

 that of the Tufted Duck, with which the duU-coloured 

 female may be confounded when flushed. She is 

 almost brown, except for the white chin and grey 

 wing-bar, which, it may be remarked, does not shew very 

 distinctly in the air. The male has a fine chestnut head 

 and neck and a mantle pencilled with black and greyish 

 white, his breast and upper back being black. Abroad 

 this species occupies most of temperate Europe and 

 Asia, while in Britain it breeds from the Orkneys to 

 the south of England and in Ireland. For nesting 

 purposes, however, it requires goodly pieces of water, 

 for it builds its nest. as a rule well out from the shore 

 among the water plants ; broad ditches in marshy 

 ground or small ponds may be occasionally chosen, but 

 invariably near lakes or swamps. The note is low and 

 whistling, with a harsh alarm-cry ; the food is mainly 

 of aquatic plants obtained by diving, but when the 

 birds resort late in the year to the seei — though 

 they are by no means regular sea-ducks — the diet 

 is varied by crustaceans and moUusks and the flesh 

 is rank. The nest and eggs are noticed under the 

 next species. 



