242 NY ROC A FULIGULA 



ducks and in the British Isles large pike often devour the downy young. In Scotland 

 foxes catch a few birds on the nests, while the Hooded Crows and occasionally gulls 

 destroy the eggs (Millais, 1913). A list of parasites is given in Naumann (1896- 

 1905). 



Damage. Nothing recorded. It has never been noticed that they are partial to 

 valuable kinds of shell-fish. 



Food Value. General opinion places this bird as only fair eating. Its fondness 

 for animal food prevents its ever ranking very high. Hume (in Hume and Marshall, 

 1879), who was particular about the birds he ate, considered them poor and says they 

 often proved rank, "froggy," or "fishy," so that in his later years he never cooked 

 them when anything else was procurable. Other writers rank them as fair to poor, 

 excepting Lord Lilford (1895) who thought their flesh "far superior in flavor to that 

 of the Common Pochard " when living on fresh water. In France so little was thought 

 of it that a special dispensation sanctioned its use during Lent and on fast-days, 

 although I think this somewhat arbitrary ruling applied more to the Scoters than to 

 the Tufted Duck. 



Hunt. Although like other diving ducks this bird was never easy to capture in 

 the tunnel-nets of the decoys, it must have always been an easy subject for persecu- 

 tion in summer, when it becomes tame. It is shot by stalking occasionally, but not 

 easily by sailing down upon flocks in open water. More commonly it is taken by 

 placing guns at favorable points on a preserved piece of water. Some, but not a 

 great number, are taken by punt-shooters in the estuaries and along the coast. It is 

 not an easy bird to shoot on large sheets of water. I read that the French hut- 

 shooters account for only a few of them. 



When diving near shore it can be run down upon between dives and shot when it 

 rises, just as we so often do with Golden-eye around the shores of our ponds. 



In Ireland they are, or were, taken by means of wide-mesh nets spread about 

 fifteen feet under water in Lough Neagh (Ussher and Warren, 1900) : a deadly device 

 for capturing any sort of diving duck, and one that ought to be rooted out every- 

 where. 



Hume and Marshall (1879) give a fine picture of one of the great Indian duck 

 drives on a long narrow lake during which a good bag of "Tufteds" was made. They 

 say, "If they are comfortably settled on a sheet of water that suits them and where 

 they have sojourned in peace for a month or two, it is scarcely possible to drive 

 them away from it the first day. Next day, after they have been thoroughly har- 

 ried not a bird is sometimes to be seen, but they will scarcely quit till after dark. 

 In this respect they are like coots (Fulica) and if means and appliances are avail- 



