THE.RED-CRESTED POCHARD. 259 
and harsher ; their wings are short, and rapidly agitated make 
a very distinct, palpitating, rushing sound, by which even a 
single bird, passing anywhere near one in the stillness of the 
night, can generally be recognized. I say generally, and I have 
often so identified them, but one makes at times very erroneous 
guesses. This last cold season, coming down the Jumna at 
night, a bunch of fowl swept over us from astern, and as I 
fired I set them down by the sound as Red-crests. The night 
was stormy, the lightning was flashing incessantly, and there 
was a head wind with drizzling rain. One bird dropped 
dead (two others fell but disappeared), and proved to be a 
Common Pochard. The fact is, that the wing rustle varies 
a good deal according to whether fowl are going with or 
against the wind, and whether the air is dry and clear, or 
loaded with mist or drizzle ; and only a very practised fen-man 
can always be quite sure of every bird, at all times, by the 
sound of its wings. 
THERE IS nothing as yet on record to lead to the belief that 
the Red-crested Pochard breeds within our limits, though it 
certainly does breed in Algiers very nearly, if not quite, as far 
south as Kashmir and at Shiraz, which is further south than 
Mooltan. 
Dr. Baldamus, who has taken many nests in Central 
Germany, all however on “a pond overgrown with reeds, flags, 
and other aquatic plants, close to the Mansfelder Salt Lake,” 
tells us that they are “ always placed in the rushes or flags, 
usually on a small island in the pond or on the flags ; and, 
like all ducks’ nests, they have a foundation of rotten stems of 
rushes or dead leaves on which a warm bed of down, plucked 
from the breast of the female, is placed. When the female 
leaves the nest quietly she covers her eggs, as do all ducks. 
The eggs vary from eight to nine, ten being the exception, and 
seven only in late settings.” All his nests were taken between 
the 12th of May and the Ist July, the later nests being much 
incubated, so that in this locality they probably lay from the 
ist May to the 15th of June. 
The eggs are only moderately broad ovals, without gloss, a 
bright, somewhat olive green when fresh and unblown* (fading 
to a dull greyish olive or greenish grey when blown,) and 
measure about 2°3 by 1°6. 
* Salvin, in his ‘‘ Five Months Birds-nesting in the Eastern Atlas,” remarks :— 
“‘In the open pools at the upper end of the marsh of Zana, I used frequently to 
see several pairs of the Red-crested Duck. Two nests only were obtained. The 
second lot, consisting of seven eggs, were of a most brilliant fresh green colour 
when unblown ; the contents were no sooner expelled, and the egg dry, than the 
oO 
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delicate tints were gone, and their beauty sadly diminished.” 
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