WHITE-EYED DUCK 197 



Breeding Range 



The species is not known ever to have bred in Iceland, the British Isles, the Scandinavian penin- 

 sula or Finland, although about a century ago Faber twice saw specimens in Iceland in March 

 (Hantzsch, 1905) and there are three or four records of occurrences in Scotland, about Iceland 

 one hundred in England and about ten in Ireland, most records for the British Isles British 

 being spring occurrences on the east coast (Witherby et al., 1919-22; Ussher and Isles 

 Warren, 1900; Millais, 1913; and numerous others). There is one record for Sweden Northern 

 (Kolthoff, 1903). In Finland, too, a pair is thought to have been seen on August 10, ' 



1912, as far north as the Muonia-Enontekis district (Montell, 1917). 



In Holland and Belgium a few specimens are seen every year and a small number are recorded as 

 nesting (Dresser, 1871-81; van Oort, 1908; Dubois, 1886), while in France this Pochard 

 is known to have nested once near Dunkirk and perhaps in Lorraine (Paris, 1907). _ . . 

 It is not improbable that a few breed in Provence, where, in Camargue, W. Eagle r> rance 

 Clarke (1895) met with five on May 17. A certain number nest in the marismas of the gnain 

 lower Guadalquivir (H. Saunders, 1871 ; Arevalo y Baca, 1887) and, it seems, in certain 

 localities in central Spain (A. Chapman and Buck, 1910). 



Its status as a breeding bird in Italy, where some have been reported nesting in Sicily, Tuscany 

 and Lombardy (Arrigoni degli Oddi, 1904; Giglioli, 1886), has not yet been satisfactorily established. 

 There is no evidence that any have ever nested in Switzerland, and in southern and 

 western Germany (Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Baden, Hessen, Rhine Provinces) as well as _ 

 in Denmark (Collett, 1877) it is a very exceptional breeding bird. Though there are 

 nesting records for Schleswig-Holstein (Bau, Blasius, Reichenow, and Schalow, 1877), Mecklenburg 

 (Wtistnei, 1902) and Brunswick (R. Blasius, 1896), it is only in northern and eastern Germany, in 

 Pomerania (Naumann, 1896-1905), East Prussia (Hartert, 1892), Posen and West Prussia (Nau- 

 mann, 1896-1905) and Brandenburg (Schalow, 1915) that it breeds at all regularly, while Lusatia 

 and Silesia are the only districts in which it is really a common nesting bird. 



In Poland, on the other hand, it is a very common breeder (Taczanowski, 1888; Katin, 1912). 

 Lesser numbers nest in Czecho-Slovakia (Fritsch, 1872) and Austria (Crown Prince Rudolf and 

 Brehm, 1879), though in Hungary it is so abundant in the summer (von Mojsisovics, 

 1883, 1886; W. E. Clarke, 1884; von Schweppenburg, 1915) that this region can PoIand 

 really be called the center of the breeding range in Europe. Numbers also breed in 

 Herzegowina (Reiser, fide Millais, 1913) and in Montenegro (Reiser and von Fuhrer, gt; a t es 

 1896) as well as in Albania and Epirus (Lilford, fide Dresser, 1871-81). In Bulgaria Balkans 

 (Sintenis, 1877; Reiser, 1894) and in Rumania (Radakoff, 1879) it is everywhere a R uss i a 

 common breeder, but in Russia its range hardly extends north of 55° north latitude. 

 Goebel (1871a) and Kessler (in Dresser, 1871-81) report it an abundant nester in Kief, and it is 

 similarly recorded for Cherson (Brauner, 1894), and Ekaterinoslav (Valkh, 1911). It is found in 

 Kasan in summer (Russki, 1893) and in southern Perm (Buturlin,,/We Millais, 1913), but it is rare in 

 the Urals, where Sabanaeff (Harvie-Brown, 1878) states that some nest near the Kaslin Lakes. 

 Various writers state that the species was found by Blasius breeding on Lake Onega, and there are two 

 specimens in the Museum at Archangel from the vicinity of that city. These are cer- Baltic 

 tainly unusual records. In the Baltic States the White-eye is a rare straggler (Loudon, States 

 1909), a few perhaps nesting in Kurland (Goebel, 1873). 



In northwest Africa this duck breeds chiefly in the west, where it is abundant in Morocco (Favier, 

 fide Irby, 1875). Smaller numbers nest in Algeria, too, — Lake Zana and Djendeli (Sal- Northwest 

 vin, 1859), Lake Halloula (Tristram, 1860) and Lake Fetzara (Zedlitz, 1914), — but Africa 

 its breeding in Tunis is still hypothetical (J. I. S. Whitaker, 1905). 



The species has never been found nesting in Egypt, but it seems likely that a few do so in Palestine 



