TUFTED DUCK 235 



breeding quarters. Similar cases have been found in British-bred Mallards, Teal and Sheld-duck 

 (Thomson, 1923). 



An excess of males has been noted by many writers in this and other diving ducks. It is apparent 

 on the breeding grounds, but more so during migration and in winter. The reason for this is hard to 

 understand. 



GENERAL HABITS 



In a general way this little duck and the White-eyed Duck fill the same niche in the 

 Old World that our Lesser Scaup does in America. It is not closely related to the 

 true Pochards {Nyroca ferina, Nyroca americana and Nyroca valisineria) and comes 

 closer to the Scaups and the White-eyed Duck than to the other diving ducks. It is 

 certainly a typical example of the Fuliguline group and is very strictly a fresh-water 

 bird, even more so than our own Lesser Blue-bill {Nyroca affinis). Its habits exhibit 

 no especial peculiarities and it is so abundant and familiar to all European sportsmen 

 and bird lovers that a long account of its life-history is unnecessary. Millais has 

 done it full justice in his work on the British diving ducks, while Hume and Mar- 

 shall wrote at length of its winter habits in India. Its extraordinary increase as a 

 breeding species in the British Isles within recent years (an increase which is still going 

 on) has made it the subject of many notes in English and Scottish journals. 



This duck shows a tendency to become extremely local, moving only short dis- 

 tances and wintering on larger sheets of fresh water wherever they remain open. 

 Its presence on salt water, especially on the open sea, is considered only accidental, 

 but it does resort to tidal estuaries during severe freezes or on migration. 



It prefers open waters of considerable size and moderate depth and lakes with is- 

 lands and reed-studded shores. In the breeding season it seeks more sheltered sur- 

 roundings. 



On the water the male is easy to identify by its black back, dependent tuft, and 

 "broad snow-white sides." The female is not easy to identify as she has no distinc- 

 tive markings but, as Witherby el at. (1919-22) remark, the sooty-brown plumage 

 and heavy build are useful guides. Occasionally she has a narrow white line at the 

 base of the upper mandible but nothing like the broad white mark on the face of the 

 female Scaup. It is difficult to distinguish her from the female of the White-eye at 

 long ranges. 



Wariness. Although not a particularly wary duck, as ducks go, it is well able 

 to look out for itself on large sheets of water, and the few I have seen (early spring 

 in Holland) were very far from confiding. Millais says that like other ducks they 

 recognize the "various degrees of danger to be attached to each separate cause of 

 disturbance. Even the individual man is separated into various categories by them, 

 for the stealthy gunner is avoided with greater care than the casual fisherman or the 

 digging laborer." Single specimens or pairs on the breeding grounds become much 



