162 NYROCA FERINA 



being 14 years and 5 months (P. C. Mitchell, 1911). J. H. Gurney (1899) mentions 

 specimens which lived 13, 17, and even 20 years, and Schmidt (1878) records one 

 that lived 10 years and 6 months in the Frankfurt Gardens. Rogeron (1903) says 

 that he kept a specimen twenty years though he had wounded and caught it when 

 already adult, and even at this great age its life ended by an accident. 



Usually diving ducks are not so long-lived as surface-feeders and unless the con- 

 ditions under which they are kept are exceptionally good most of them will die after 

 two or three years. In the Calcutta Gardens, Sanyal (1892) says they did not do at 

 all well, and in the Cairo Gardens, Flower (1910) had the same experience, though 

 one specimen lived 4 years, 6 months. 



Hybrids. In the wild state the Pochard not infrequently crosses with the White- 

 eye (Nyroca nyroca), the result being the so-called Paget's Pochard, long regarded 

 by some as a separate species. In addition wild crosses have been recorded between 

 the Pochard and the Tufted Duck (Nyroca fuligula) , the Scaup (Nyroca marila), the 

 Golden-eye (Bucephala clangula), the European Teal (Anas crecca) and the Pintail 

 (Anas acuta). In confinement the Pochard has been crossed with the Red -crested 

 Pochard (Netta rufina), the Common Sheldrake (Tadorna tadorna), the Mallard 

 (Anas boschas) and the Carolina Duck (Lampronessa sponsa), — (Suchetet, 1896; 

 Poll, 1911; Millais, 1913; H. Wormald, in litt.; etc.). 



As to the fertility of crosses with this duck very few actual breeding tests are on 

 record. Examination of the germ cells in hybrids with the Tufted Duck show them 

 to be fully developed, and probably fertile (Poll, 1911). It is more than probable 

 that crosses between the Pochard, Red-head and Canvas-back will all prove fertile 

 but much less work has been done with this group than with the surface-feeding 

 ducks. 



