THE RED -CRESTED POCHARD. 309 



By female alone normally ; male once recorded incubating. Period 

 23-24 days. Single brooded. 



Food. — Post-mortem results show chiefly fresh- water mollusca 

 (Planorbis, Hydrobia, etc.) also Littorina and Bissoa, and vegetable 

 matter, especially seeds of Scirpus, Phragmitis, Potamogeton, etc., 

 and on coast, Zostera. Other water-weeds such as Lemna, Glyceria, 

 etc., also taken ; aquatic insects (especially water -beetles), and at 

 sea, amphipoda and small Crustacea. Naumann also includes spawn 

 and fry of frogs and fish, as well as small worms. 



Distributions. — England and Wales. — Resident, forsaking most 

 breeding-places in autumn and then , as well as in winter, more 

 widely distributed ; winter-visitor (m d-Sept.-Nov. to mid-March- 

 mid- April). Since 1876 greatly increased as breeding-species, and 

 now nests Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, Yorks., Lanes., 

 Lines., Notts., Staffs., Salop, Warwick, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs., 

 Beds., Herts., Essex, Kent, Sussex, Hants., Dorset, Somerset, and 

 Devon. In Wales much scarcer, but nests Anglesey and once 

 Merioneth. Scotland. — Breeds good many places in Tweed, Forth, 

 Tay, one locality Aberdeen, Moray, also Solway, Clyde, once west 

 Sutherland, Tiree, since 1903 in Outer Hebrides, Orkneys (cf. Scot. 

 Nat., 1920, pp. 155-64, 195-6). Increasing. — Ireland. — Breeds 

 every province. Increasing. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Northern hemisphere. Breeds as far 

 north as lat. 68°, but not proved in Spain and Algeria and no recent 

 records from Egypt ; in America to Alaska. Winters south to 

 Senegambia and "Somaliland, India, Ceylon, China, Borneo, Philip- 

 pines, Japan, Hawaiian Islands and in America to West Indies and 

 Colombia. Casual Madeira and Canaries, Bermudas, Newfoundland 

 and once near Cape Town. 



[Note. — Wanderers from captivity of the North American Summer- 

 Duck:, Aix sponsa (L.), are sometimes shot (Saunders, p. 432).] 



Genus NETTA Kaup. 



Netta Kaup, Skizz. Entwicklungsgesch. u. Naturl. Syst., pp. 102, 196 

 (1829 — Monotype : N. rufina). 



In structure generally like Nyroca, but larger, bill rather long, 

 narrower in front than behind, cutting edge straight, colour red or 

 reddish. Serrations of upper mandible short, coarse, directed in- 

 wardly. Edge of feathering on sides of bill forming almost a straight 

 line. Sexes different, male fully crested. 1 species. 



NETTA RUFINA 



310. Netta rufina (Pall.)— THE RED-CRESTED POCHARD. 



Anas rufina Pallas, Reise d. versch. Prov. d. Russ. Reichs, n, p. 713 



(1773— S. Russia). 



Fuligula rufina (Pallas), Yarrell, iv, p. 407 : Netta rufina (Pallas), 



Saunders, p. 441. 



Nyroca rufina (Pall.), Hand-List (1912), p. 139. 



