* 
Red-crested Pochard 9 
a distant spectator might have mistaken them for a vast expanse of beautiful aquatic 
flowers." 
Mr. Stuart Baker considers that the Red-crested Pochard likes to congregate into- 
very large flocks, and "it is only when the country is not very well suited to their 
wants that they split up into small parties, and under these circumstances very small 
flocks and even pairs and single birds may be sometimes seen" (p. 211). In Southern 
Europe, probably owing to the species being comparatively speaking scarce, it is rare 
to find large flocks of these birds together. Even where they are fairly common they 
are usually noted in small parties. 
The Red-crested Pochard is essentially a duck of the fresh water, and is never 
found upon the open sea. The ponds and lakes they like to frequent are reedy, sedge-lined 
sheets of water with a considerable area of deep water in the centre. Naumann thus 
correctly describes their haunts (trans.) : — 
" Pieces of stagnant water of large circumference, whether the water be salt or fresh, with a. 
great deal of sedge or reeds on the banks, green islands, and also large open expanses of water 
they seem to like best, and from them they visit the smaller ponds close to the swamps and marshes, 
especially if at a suitable depth of water a great many plants grow on the bottom. Sometimes on. 
their wanderings they fall in love with smaller ponds, as has been proved to us in this district by a 
beautiful female which was killed on a small mill-pond full of sedge and surrounded by plantations 
of trees and orchards ; but for a more continuous stay they require, on account of their great 
timidity, larger expanses of water. They only visit large and swiftly-flowing rivers as occasional 
places of refuge ; for a longer stay they keep to the quiet corners of such streams. They have much 
in common with the F. ferina, both as regards the colouring of their feathers and their places of 
sojourn, and this seems to point to their being nearly akin. 
"They do not avoid trees and shrubs, as has been already remarked, and they have been found 
on pieces of water both in open and wooded districts, and even upon lakes and large ponds quite 
surrounded by woods ; they always keep to the middle of these, or far removed from the bank and 
generally on open water, seldom come up to the bank, and with the exception of the breeding time 
hide themselves still less often in sedge and other plant-growths. They like best pools on the bottom 
of which grow a great many submerged water-plants; on those which have a clean bottom they do 
not stay for long, or if there are spots which have submerged plant-growths they generally keep entirely 
to these and always come back to them after they have been disturbed, and in the autumn they not 
infrequently remain for weeks on pools which suit them." 
The foregoing exactly describes the nature of the habitat of this duck, and in such 
places I have seen them in Hungary, Silesia, and Moravia, but the usual habitat of the 
species in North Africa is somewhat different. Here they live in the centre of great 
shallow lagoons of brackish water, whose sides are often quite bare of vegetation and 
are encrusted with saline deposits. These great bitter lakes east of Oran, in Algeria, 
are bald and shelterless, but there must be food there, as the Red-crested Pochards may 
be seen diving in the centre with assiduity. Doubtless they spend much of their 
time in resting in these lakes, and work out at night the smaller pools whose approach 
by day would be dangerous, for behind rocks there hides the ubiquitous Arab and his gun. 
At a great distance on the water it is possible to mistake this species for the common 
Pochard, but at a closer range it is very easy to recognise. In flight both male and 
female show much white in the wing ; the black under parts of the male and whitish throat 
of the female are also characteristic. 
VOL. r. -R 
