290 THE WHITE-FACED STIFF-TAIL DUCK. 
These ducks proved to be an immature pair of the White- 
headed Duck. 
No one had observed it in Mesopotamia or Persia, and its 
occurrence, therefore, near Khelat-i-Ghilzai, so much to the 
south and east of the previously known limits of its range, was 
most unexpected. 
In Southern Europe, the south of France, Spain, Italy, 
Austria, Greece, Turkey, and the larger islands of the Medi- 
terranean, it occurs, though nowhere apparently in great 
numbers ; but it is more plentiful in Southern Russia, especially 
on the Lower Volga. 
It is also found in Asia Minor and Palestine, throughout 
the north of Africa, (Tangiers, Algeria, and Lower Egypt,) on 
the Caspian, and lastly in Western Turkestan, where Severtzoff 
says that it is seen on passage, and even breeds. 
OF ALL the Old World ducks there is perhaps no more remark- 
able form than the present species, with its very ‘bread 
base-swollen bill and lengthened, stiff, pointed, almost Wood- 
pecker-like tail. 
It is said to be entirely a fresh-water species, frequenting, 
as a rule, the larger lakes. 
It is apparently very much of a diving duck, often prefer- 
ring to seek safety under water rather than by flight; and 
Tristram tells us that both in flight and habit it more resem- 
bles a Grebe than a true Duck. 
Personally, of course, I know nothing of this species; but 
in order to give some idea of its habits, I may quote from the 
fois of 1875, Messrs. Danford and Harvie-Brown’s remarks in 
regard to it, the result of their observations in Transylvania :— 
“This curious bird, which we found in the Mezéség, is not 
very common. We met with a flock of nine or ten birds at a 
small reedy lake near Zah; but, owing to the difficulty of 
paddling the wretched square-ended canoes or punts (csénak), 
the only substitutes for boats in the country, we found great 
difficulty in getting near them, and for some days only 
succeeded in shooting one male, and that at a very long range. 
A couple of days before our departure, however, we were 
more fortunate ; the birds were tamer, and let us get a num- 
ber of long shots, by which we killed three more males and 
a female. They never attempted to leave the lake, but after 
a short rapid flight pitched again, generally about the same 
place. They swam very fast, keeping their stiff Woodpecker- 
like tails erect at right angles with the body, and when 
wounded, though they dived constantly, showed no disposition 
to escape, like other ducks, by hiding among the reeds, but 
on the contrary avoided them.” 
Naumann says that they swim very low in the water, some- 
thing like a Cormorant, showing only head and neck, anda 
