THE POCHARD OR DUN-BIRD. 251 
of the paddle (with which you have been steering) below your 
knee, and quickly swinging the gun up, from your side or 
between your knees, to the shoulder, secure a brace or more 
before they are out of range. Even ona calm day I still hoist 
the sail, and with half the paddle slowly propel until within 
sixty or seventy yards, when I give one strong stroke, seize the 
gun and take them as they rise. 
“Here the Pochards and Pintail feed in the mornings and 
evenings over the gravelly parts of the bed of the river, but 
during the heat of the day they mostly rest on just submerged 
sandbanks or float over the deep pools.” 
Of course, with their diving powers, wounded birds give a 
erand chase; but they are not quite such adepts at disappear- 
ing altogether as the White-eye ; and, as they are more generally 
shot in open water, it is less common to lose them. 
Their note, rarely heard until they are disturbed, is very like 
that of the White-eye, but louder and harsher—a kurr, kurr ; but 
their wing rustle is far more characteristic, and I have rarely 
failed to recognize them by it, when I have shot them at night, 
before they came to hand. 
THERE IS no reason to suppose that this species breeds any- 
where within our limits, though it certainly beeds in Algiers 
in nearly the same latitude as Kashmir. But its nidification 
is well known, as it breeds, as already mentioned, in several 
places in England, and many parts of the Continent. 
_ They lay, according to locality, in April, May and June, 
making their nest either on sedges and rush in the water, or on 
the ground immediately at the water’s edge. The nest in 
some cases is a regular but slight one, composed of dry flags 
and sedges wound round into a circular form. In others it is 
a mere depression in the soil, more or less thinly lined with 
similar materials. In either case a quantity of the bird’s own 
down gives softness to the nest and more or less covers the 
eges. 
Professor Newton tells us that in England they usually lay 
from six to eight eggs in the nest, but that others are not 
unfrequently found scattered about ; but on the Continent they 
are said, I see, to lay from ten to twelve or even more eggs, 
The eggs are very regular broad ovals ; the shell smooth but 
dull and glossless. In colour they are a pale dingy green, or 
greenish drab, more or less, in most cases, tinged with yellow. 
They average about 2’4 in length by 1:7 in breadth. 
THERE Is very little difference in the size of the two sexes, 
Half a dozen adults of each sex measured as follows :— 
Males.— Length, 18:0 to 18°5 ; expanse, 29'4 to 32:2; wing, 
Sesto ss tall irom vent, 2°35 to.3°2.; tarsus, 174) to 1°5\; bill 
from gape, 2°15 to 2°27; weight, 1 tb. 13 ozs, to 2 Ibs. 5 ozs, 
