lo British Diving Ducks 
The Red-crested Pochard frequently comes ashore on lakes where they are seldom 
disturbed, but if much harassed they keep to the deep water the whole day. On land 
they stand and walk in a manner quite different from other diving ducks, and seem to 
be able to walk and run with less roll and greater ease than other species. At such times 
the neck is very much drawn up, with the bill depressed, and when moving fast it takes 
the form of the letter S, whilst the body is held more or less horizontal. If they approach 
anything suspicious or are suddenly frightened, the body is suddenly held up. They 
seldom leave the banks of a lake except during the nesting season. In swimming, or 
when about to dive for food, the body is held low in the water, the tail trailing on the 
surface, the neck is stiff and almost upright, and the bill held depressed. The bird at such 
times has an air of intent alertness, as if minutely searching the depths below. Although 
skilful divers, they do not stay below the surface as long as other species, thirty seconds being 
a long dive. Unlike other diving ducks they show a distinct preference for shallows 
at certain seasons, and especially in places where they are undisturbed. Here they may 
be seen paddling for hours round the edge of a lake, frequently tipping up the hinder parts 
after the fashion of Mallard or Pintail, and reaching for delicacies with their long necks. 
Their flight is similar to other diving species, and it is accompanied by a faint whistling 
sound, and is strong and well sustained. They have some difficulty in rising if there is 
no wind. 
Legge affirms that this duck regularly feeds in the shallows as described above, and 
that it does not dive for its food, which is scarcely correct, for the bird employs both 
methods ; and Hume, commenting on this, remarks : I should like to know where he 
obtained his valuable information. The fact is, that though you may at times see it 
dibbling about in the water like Teal and Shovellers, or again feeding as he describes, 
its normal habit and practice is to dive, and I have watched flocks of them, scores of times, 
diving for an hour at a time with pertinacity and energy unsurpassed by any other wild 
fowl. Examine closely their favourite haunts, and you will find these to be almost 
invariably just those waters in which they must dive for their food : deep broads, where 
the feathery water-weed beds do not reach within several feet of the surface, not the 
comparatively shallow ones, where the same weeds lie in thick masses coiled along the 
surface." 
Doubtless Mr. Hume is right in the main, but in Sardinia and other places this duck 
frequents in Europe many of the lagoons are very shallow, and the birds obtain much 
of their food by tipping up and reaching for it. Moreover, although the circumstance does 
not bear any solid comparison to their habits in a wild state, it is worth noticing that 
in confinement, even on large sheets of water, the Red-crested Pochard spends as much 
time searching for food round the sides as it does by diving in the middle of the lake. 
Those that I have kept and others I have watched in the enclosures of Mr. St. Quintin 
and Mr. Dennis followed this practice. We must also take into account that the birds 
observed by Hume and Stuart Baker, who confirms Hume's views, were subject to 
frequent molestation, and that they were in very large flocks, which as individuals would 
be always shy of approaching shallows and more suspicious. Naumann thus treats of 
their cautious nature: — 
