INTRODUCTION 
IN writing this monograph on the British Diving Ducks I have attempted 
to set forth the life-history of certain birds belonging to the Palsearctic 
region, which are without exception the most difficult to study. The 
majority of the species described do not breed with us, and to gain a knowledge 
of their habits and the various plumages through which they pass from birth to 
maturity has involved much labour, travel, and collecting. When I began the task 
of studying the ducks, some thirty years ago, I found few books or collections 
that were of much help, and even to-day the best public and private museums 
seldom contain more than a few specimens besides the adults. It was therefore 
necessary to personally form such a collection as would show beyond question the 
various changes, often intricate and slow, through which the ducks pass during 
life, and, with this end in view, I spent many years shooting ducks on the British 
coasts. After a time it was found impossible to obtain more than a certain number 
in our islands, and I had to go far afield to Iceland, Scandinavia, East and West 
Canada, Alaska, Southern Europe, and North Africa, that I might obtain such 
ducks in various plumages as were unobtainable at home. Thus most of the 
birds here figured were shot or collected by myself, and if this book contains no 
other merit, it will show for the first time a fairly complete series of pictures of 
the life-history of each of our ducks. This has not been previously offered by 
any author, and it will, I trust, be of use to those lovers of Natural History who 
are anxious to study these interesting birds. 
Naumann and Blasius (in the Neuer Naumann) have given us some good 
descriptions of such diving ducks as came under their notice, but their collection 
and the birds at their disposal seem to have been few in number, so that they often 
fail to tell us the exact ages of the specimens they describe. Moreover, there are 
