COMMON POCHARD 149 



V. Wright's {fide Dresser, 1871-81) assertion that it occurs about Karesuando and Montell's (1917) 

 statement that he found the species rare in May in the Enontekis-Muonio district of Finland (Lap- 

 land)! 



In Russia proper the Pochard nests in many districts. It is rare in the Crimea (Radde, 1854) but 

 breeds commonly in Ekaterinoslav (Valkh, 1911), Kief (Goebel, 1870), at Sarepta (Moeschler, 

 1853), Tula, Moscow (Menzbier, 1881; Poliakov, 1912), Kazan (Russki, 1893), Perm R 

 {fide Millais, 1913), Jaroslav {ibid.), Novgorod (Bianchi, 1910), near Riga (Sawitzky, 

 1899) and rarely about Petrograd (Biiehner, 1885; Bianchi, 1907). Alston and Harvie-Brown (1873) 

 state that the Museum of Archangel has a specimen presumably from that vicinity. 



Little is known as to the breeding status of this duck in the Balkans. It is fairly common and 

 breeds in Transylvania (Danford and Harvie-Brown, 1875) and some were seen late in Balkan 

 May in the Danube delta (von Almasy, 1898). Nests have also been found near Varna, States 

 and Dombrowski states that it breeds commonly in Rumania (Millais, 1913). It has been reported 

 as probably breeding in Macedonia. 



Comparatively little is known of the breeding range of the Pochard in Asia. It is a common nesting 

 species throughout the Kirgis region (Seebohm, 1882; Nazarow, 1887; Suschkin, 1914) but does not 

 seem to breed in the Caucasus. There is no definite evidence of its nesting farther . . 

 south, though some were seen late in April on the Tedshen River, Transcaspia, and it is 

 said to be a rare resident at Seistan, in southeastern Persia (Cumming, 1905; Zarudny, 1911). Mein- 

 ertzhagen (1920) states that specimens were seen in Baluchistan near Quetta in May, June and even 

 July, though no nests were found. 



Northward, the breeding range extends over central Asia and the southern part of western Siberia. 

 The species has been found breeding or in summer at Yarkand (Koslow, 1899), on the Hi River 

 (Smallbones, 1906), on the Sassyk-kul and Ala-kul (Finsch, 1879), on the Saissan-nor and in the 

 Russian Altai (Suschkin, 1913), near Akmolinsk (Bianchi, 1902a), on Lake Tschany (Slovzoff , fide 

 Finsch, 1879), near Omsk (Poliakov, 1915), near Tomsk (P. and J. Zalesski, 1915) and near Tobolsk, 

 where small numbers nest everywhere (Finsch, 1879; Ushakov, 1913). Eastward, the Pochard breeds 

 near Minussinsk (Suschkin, 1913) and about the southwestern part of Lake Baikal (Radde, 1863). 

 There is no good evidence of its having nested farther east. The male taken on Bering Island, May 13, 

 1911 (Hartert, 1920a) and the male taken on St. Paul Island in the Pribilov group, May 4, 1912 

 (Evermann, 1913), were undoubtedly isolated summer stragglers, while the records for northern 

 Japan are mostly in autumn and winter. 



Winter Range 



The Pochard is a common winter bird throughout the British Isles, though the numbers seem to 

 vary considerably in different years (H. Saunders, 1899; Millais, 1913; G. R. Gray, British 

 1871; Ussher and Warren, 1900; and many others). The northern extent of the winter Isles 

 range in this region is probably the Shetland Islands, where the species is very irregular in its occur- 

 rence (Saxby, 1874; A. H. Evans and Buckley, 1899). 



On the Continent this duck winters in small numbers on the western and southern coasts of the 

 Scandinavian peninsula, in Norway generally from Christiansand to Stavanger, though specimens 

 have been taken at Bergen and once, October, 1873, on Varangerfjord (Wallengren, Western 

 1854; Dresser, 1871-81; Nilsson, 1858; Schaanning, 1913). It is also found in Den- Europe 

 mark during the cold season (Helms, 1905; " G. L.," 1918). It is said to be very common in Schleswig- 

 Holstein in winter (Bau, Blasius, Reichenow and Schalow, 1877) and is generally found throughout 

 Germany in small numbers and in suitable localities (Naumann, 1896-1905; et al.). It is a cold- 

 weather visitor in Holland (Dresser, 1871-81), Belgium (Dubois, 1886) and, I imagine, along the 

 northern coast of France. In some winters a few stay in central France (Delmas, 1912; des Prugnes, 

 1912) and many pass the cold season in Provence (Lilford, 1875; l'Hermitte, 1916). 



