POCHARD. 351 



very few remaining to breed. In fact, I know of only one 

 instance of its nest having been found in the county, which 

 I discovered myself, on the side of the lower Mill Pond, at 

 Bolney, close to the water-side. It contained three eggs, 

 but I unfortunately cannot give the date. The bird is very 

 clumsy and awkward on the land, and heavy and sluggish 

 on the wing ; on its first rising, flapping for a short distance 

 along the surface of the water. It feeds chiefly on Zostera 

 marina, which it obtains in the shallows of the estuaries, 

 eating only the root, though when at sea it also finds various 

 Crustacea and small fish. In a semi-domesticated state the 

 Pochard does well on maize. The only note I have heard it 

 iitter is a harsh curr, curr, except that, when courting the 

 female, the male has a note resembling the syllables " poo- 

 00-00," delivered with the head and neck stretched straight 

 out towards her, almost on the surface of the water. It 

 dives with great ease, but does not use its wings under 

 water. 1 have never but once seen my birds interfere with 

 fish ; in that case one of them gave a pretty hard peck to a 

 considerable-sized tench, which was on the surface of the 

 water. 



The nest is merely a hollow in the ground, lined with 

 dead sedge and down. The Pochard is generally known to 

 the wild fowler and the poulterer as the Dun bird, and is so 

 difiBcult to take in the ordinary decoy pipe, from its cunningly 

 diving back when it perceives that it is entering it, that an 

 especial contrivance has to be adopted for capturing it, as 

 from the great estimation in which it is held for the table, 

 and the large numbers which may be taken at a time, it is 

 one of the most valued of all the Ducks. 



Mr. Jeflfery remarks (p. n.) that he saw about sixty, 

 mostly adult males, in Aldworth Pond, near Stansted, in 

 January 1867, and that three were shot in Ratham Mill 

 Pond, in January 1879. Since writing the above, I have 



