WHITE-EYED DUCK 205 



Hume and Marshall's (1879) collectors never found more than ten, but both Bau 

 et al. (1877) and Baker (1921) have reported clutches numbering fourteen eggs, and 

 Madarasz one of twenty eggs (fide Millais, 1913), probably the work of two females. 

 Clutches of twelve are not infrequent. The eggs when fresh, have a faint greenish 

 tinge, which fades with age. The ground color is a pale brown to cafe-au-lait tint, 

 which distinguishes them from those of the Tufted Duck. According to Seebohm 

 (1896) they can be confused with the eggs of the Gadwall, Widgeon, Harlequin and 

 Smew, but the shell of the White-eye's eggs is heavier than in those of the three last 

 and the down is distinctive. The average measurements of 100 eggs are: 52.3 by 38.2 

 mm., the maximum length and breadth being 62.8 and 43 and the minimum 48.4 

 and 33.7 mm., respectively (Hartert, 1920a; Witherby et al, 1919-22). The nest- 

 down is very characteristic, being dark brown in color with a hardly perceptible 

 white center and occasionally lighter tips (A. C. Jackson, 1918). 



Other ducks frequently use the White-eye's nest as a place in which to deposit 

 stray eggs; the White-eye seems always to do the incubating in such cases. The 

 stray eggs are probably Pochard's (Mojsisovics, fide von Dalla-Torre and von 

 Tschusi zu Schmidhoffen, 1888). 



Mr. Portielje of the Amsterdam Gardens writes me that specimens which he 

 reared were incubated for twenty-eight days but they have been hatched in less time 

 than this by Mr. Wormald. Mr. Blaauw, writing to Millais (1913), also placed the 

 incubation at twenty -eight days. Favier (in Irby, 1875) considered it thirty days, 

 but this is certainly too long except possibly in cases where the eggs are very stale. 



During incubation the male leaves the female, as is the case in all typical northern 

 ducks. The female, like the ducks of other species, will lay a second, though smaller 

 clutch if the first one is destroyed. The young are said to fly at the age of about two 

 months. In September the young and old of both sexes join again and begin to mi- 

 grate (Naumann, 1896-1905). This is a rather general statement, and I know of no 

 good observations as to the distribution of ages and sexes during migration. 



Status. Over a great part of its range the White-eye is one of the most plentiful 

 species, especially on its breeding grounds. In Hungary it is the commonest breed- 

 ing species of diving duck (W. E. Clarke, 1884, p. 147; von Mojsisovics, 1883) and the 

 same is true of the Danube delta (Reiser, 1894). In southern Spain, Irby (in 

 Dresser, 1871-81) found it more abundant than the Marbled Teal or the Garganey 

 in the summer time. During the cold season Harrison (1918) found it by far the 

 commonest duck in Macedonia, but at Lake Fetzara, Algeria, it was not so com- 

 mon as the Marbled Duck or the Common Pochard during the nesting period 

 (Zedlitz, 1914). Shelley (1872) speaks of seeing immense flocks numbering thousands 

 in Lower Egypt. Radde and Walter (1889) saw "hundreds" migrating in Trans- 

 caspia. In southern Tibet and in Kashmir it is certainly the commonest breeding 



