BAER'S POCHARD 213 



quick movement is being performed the wind-pipe (neck) is blown out to the fullest 

 extent and then the air is released. This part of the display is common to both the 

 Pochards and the Scaups. "When much excited the bird was seen to contract the 

 pupil of the eye till it was almost lost to view. Another attitude (Millais, 1913) 

 assumed also by the drake of the White-eye, is to throw the head up and back and 

 also to stretch the neck to its fullest extent, with the head held horizontally, and 

 blow it out with air. 



Few nests have ever been found. According to Dybowski and Godlowski (fide 

 Taczanowski, 1893) they are placed on the shores of lakes or along the banks of 

 streams. The size of the clutch is not known, but an egg described by Baker (1921) 

 is a very dirty dull-colored drab without gloss and with a texture exactly resembling 

 that of the Common White-eye, from which it differs only by its larger size. The 

 measurements of five eggs show a maximum length and width of 55 and 39 mm. 

 respectively, and minimum of 51 and 38 mm. (Hartert 1920a). The incubation 

 period is not known and the young in down has never been described. 



Finn (1909) noted that in India this bird, when kept in confinement, stands the 

 heat less well than the Common White-eye. 



In 1906 the London Zoological Gardens received five specimens of this duck from 

 Mr. Finn. Of these one lived three years and eleven months, the average length of 

 life for all being one year and nine months (P. C. Mitchell, 1911). 



While visiting Mr. Wormald in Norfolk, in the spring of 1922, he told me that 

 seven or eight years before he had obtained several pairs of this Pochard from Mr. 

 Jamrach in London. Evidently the dealer had confused them with Common White- 

 eyes, for he let them go at a very low price. Mr. Wormald did not keep the birds 

 for any length of time, but resold them to the Duke of Bedford and to Mr. St. 

 Quintin. A few days later I saw Mr. St. Quintin's collection in Yorkshire and he 

 showed me a single old male which was the surviving member of the pair which he 

 had received from Mr. Wormald. The female had died some time before and had 

 never shown any signs of breeding. The male was still in splendid plumage, but was 

 very wild. He must have been over eight years old, a good age for any diving duck 

 in confinement. 



So far as I know the species has never been kept in continental collections and in 

 the United States I happen to know of only one, now in the collection of Mr. J. V. 

 De Laveaga in California. I know of no hybrids. 



