1 
8 British Diving Ducks 
O. U. check list). Its supposed occurrence in Iceland is stated by Hantzsch (p. 182) 
to be erroneous. 
As a visitor to Great Britain, Mr. Dresser (p. 560) regards it as " extremely rare." 
This, I should say, is somewhat overstating the case, for whilst its appearance is only 
casual or irregular, scarcely a winter now passes without specimens being noted or killed 
within our islands. This may be due principally to the fact that the number of competent 
observers is greatly increased since Mr. Dresser wrote his Birds of Ettrope, and also 
may in some part be due to the fact that aviculturists have bred the species in confinement 
and have allowed the young to wander away. It is scarcely within the limits of these 
volumes to record every instance of the capture of ducks of only comparative rarity, so I 
must ask my readers who wish for details of the capture of the first sixteen examples 
(between the years 18 18 and 1869) to turn to Mr. Harting's Handbook of British Birds, 
where they will find details. Nearly all of these birds were taken in Norfolk, with the 
exception of one from Cornwall and one from E. Devon. Mr. Saunders in his Manual 
states (p. 441) that " others have been taken along the east coast between Berwick-on-Tweed 
and the mouth of the Thames," but does not give details. I have at various times inspected 
nearly every public and private collection of British birds, and have seldom failed to notice 
specimens of this duck, generally killed locally. So that we must presume that it is not 
such a rarity as some naturalists would suggest, though the majority of these have not been 
recorded. I possess a fine adult male killed near Cambridge in the winter of 1882 (figured 
by Mr. Thorburn), and saw others in the hands of Mr. Dogget (Cambridge) which had been 
killed at Ely at the same date. The Red-crested Pochard has occurred twice in Yorkshire 
(British Birds, vol. ii. p. 416), whilst Mr. H. W. Ford-Lindsay records in the same 
periodical (vol. iv. p. 316) a flock of sixteen at Borehambridge, Sussex, at the end of January 
191 1, from which two drakes and a duck were killed. There are also records from Suffolk, 
Essex, Herts, Hants, Dorset, Pembroke, and Westmoreland. 
The only example obtained in Ireland is one now in the collection of Sir Ralph Payne- 
Gallwey. It was shot by Mr. Victor M'Cowen near Tralee on January 18, 1881, and was 
exhibited by A. G. More before the Zoological Society on March 15, 1881 [P. Z. S., 1881, 
p. 409). 
In Scotland the species is also very rare. One was obtained in Argyllshire in January 
1862 [P. Z. S., 1862, p. 163). Two young males were shot near Oban in the winter of 1898, 
as I am informed by Mr. Bishop, the Oban taxidermist, who mounted them. These have 
not previously been recorded. 
Habits. — Essentially a southern species, the Red-crested Pochard comes north to 
Germany or to England in October and November before the frost and snow, and leaves 
for the south on the first signs of Arctic conditions, whilst a few come north in March 
and April and wander about in small parties before seeking their breeding-places in 
May. In Europe they do not appear to be very gregarious, as they are in India, where 
they arrive in flocks of thousands in late October and November. Hiime mentions finding 
them in "flocks of many thousands and acres of water paved with them," whilst Reid 
says: "One morning in December I came across countless numbers in a jheel in the 
Fyzabad district, closely packed and covering the whole surface of the water, with 
their red heads moving independently, while the breeze kept their crests in motion ; 
