Common Pochard 
2 1 
no frost there), as well as on the lakes of Wigtownshire and the Solway border. I have 
also seen immense flocks of Pochard on Loch Spynie (Elgin), and on the lochs of Strathbeg 
and Skene (Aberdeenshire). In Ireland Pochards sometimes visit Loughs Erne and Belfast 
in considerable numbers. 
"The Pochard" {Birds of Ireland, p. 202) "visits every part of Ireland in winter, and is chiefly 
to be found on the inland lakes, on some of which, as on Lough Derg (Shannon) flocks of thousands 
have been reported. Marine inlets, like the fiords of Kerry and Lough Swilly in Donegal, are also 
frequented by this bird, but it flocks to the tide to a much greater extent when inland lakes are frozen. 
" Sir R. Payne-Gallwey states that on some of the south-western estuaries he has seen five thousand 
collected after a gale, and on Lough Gill, near Castlegregory, fully three thousand, with Scaup and 
Golden-Eyes." 
Habits. — The home of the Pochard is large freshwater lakes, or big reed-enclosed 
swamps with deep water-pools in the centre, where they can dive for food and remain 
beyond the reach of the gun. They are not averse to still tidal estuaries, generally of 
brackish water, but seem to regard the sea itself merely as a place of refuge when driven 
from their true homes. 
Such statements as one of the most abundant species on the coast of Scotland" (See- 
bohm), and " I have never seen any number far away from salt water " (Lord Lilford), 
seem to me to betray a sad lack of knowledge of this bird. Rightly commenting on these 
statements, her Grace the Duchess of Bedford, in a letter to me, says : "I have been a great 
deal on the coast of Scotland up to December, and I do not think I have ever met with a 
Pochard in the sea or far down in an estuary. I counted 260 Pochards on one of our ponds 
a few days ago." 
Where Pochards are most at home are large open stretches of fresh water that contain 
wide areas that are not of too great a depth. They seem to like lakes with rather muddy 
bottoms, where vegetation grows on pure sand, in which there is an abundance of water 
insects and much molluscae. From such a centre they travel out at night to smaller ponds, 
and return at daybreak to their sanctuary. This proves that the Pochard is intelligent, 
and, like all diving ducks, first considers its safety and then its food supply. In 
migration time, single birds or a few together may be found in quite small pools, but they 
never stay long in such places, but pass on until they find safety in numbers. As a rule, 
Pochards keep well to the centre of a lake or offshore during the day, and are only to be 
seen diving near reed-beds or close to the banks of sluggish rivers, where they receive con- 
tinuous protection. They are at all times suspicious of man, and at once swim for deep 
water on the least alarm. Even during gales they like to keep just out of shot of shore on 
the edge, as it were, of rough water, and take just as much advantage of bank shelter as is 
compatible with safety. This sense of caution is also evinced in their methods of going 
ashore to sleep and preen, for they generally choose some gentle shallow or low sloping 
island over which some members of the flock can see at all times, and on which the rest of 
the flock can rest at midday. On smaller pools they show an aftection for those small green 
islands round which the muddy bottom produces an abundance of plant growth. Where 
constantly protected, it is common to see them in close proximity to the rushy banks where 
alders and willows grow and keep off the winds. Like all ducks, they seem to dislike a 
draught, and avoid wind-swept areas of water. 
