THE RED-CRESTED POCHARD. 257 
shot was fired nothing would make them rise ; afterwards, for 
days, they would not let anything approach within a hundred 
yards of them without rising. 
Dresser tells us that “zt does not dive,* but like the Mallard, 
when feeding in shallow water, it turns end up, and stretching 
down its neck, reaches and plucks up the water plants on which 
it feeds.” I should like to know where he obtained this valu- 
able information. The fact is, that though you may, at times, 
see it dibbling about the water like Teal and Shovellers, or again 
feeding as he describes, its normal habit and practice zs to 
dive, and I have watched flocks of them, scores of times, diving, 
jer an hour ata time, with a pertinacity and  enerey 
unsurpassed by any other wild fowl. Examine closely their 
favorite haunts, and you will find these to be almost in- 
variably just those waters in which they must dive for their 
food. Deep broads, where the feathery water-weed beds do 
not reach within several feet of the surface, not the compara- 
tively shallow ones, where the same weeds (the character of 
their leaves, however, changed by emergence) lie in thick 
masses coiled along the surface. 
Although mainly vegetarians, they indulge more in animal 
food than the Pochard. I have found small frogs, fish-spawn, 
shells, both land and water, insects, grubs, worms, and on three 
or four occasions tiny fish, mixed with the vegetable matter, 
sand and pebbles that their stomachs contained. Usually at 
least two-thirds of their food is vegetable, leaves, stems, fleshy 
rhizomes, rootlets, &c., of arrow grasses, Sagittarias, Horn 
Worts, and the like; but at times they feed largely on the 
animal substances above enumerated, and I examined one 
male that had entirely gorged itself on fishes abcut an inch 
in length. Probably it is owing to this that these ducks 
vary soin quality as comestibles ; sometimes they are really 
first-rate, (they are almost always very fat), while at others 
they have a rank, marshy, froggy flavour, that it requires 
lemon and red pepper in abundance to neutralize. 
Though constantly seen feeding by day, when in suitable 
situations, they also feed a good deal during the night, and 
those whose day quarters happen for the time to be waters 
that yield little food, leave these at dusk for more prolific 
haunts. Perhaps they mostly move at that time; certainly 
you very commonly shoot them when out flighting, and at 
that time they are usually in pairs or small parties, very rarely 
in large flocks. 
They are strong but heavy fliers, and they are slow in get- 
ting under weigh ; but for some reason, which I have failed to 
discover, (for in daylight they do not rise very perpendicu- 
larly), they are very seldom caught in the standing net. 
* The italics are mine, 
LT 
