24 British Diving Ducks 
males continuously keep up their curious groan, which is somewhat like a man affected with 
asthma and being told by the doctor to ''take a deep breath." In addition to this call, 
they also utter a soft low whistle, which the spectator must be close at hand to hear. The 
first attitude of the male consists in throwing the head and neck back until the back 
of the head touches a point between the shoulders. This is repeated constantly at the 
commencement of courtship. The more common display is to blow the neck out with air, 
with the head raised horizontally, and utter the groan as the air is released. During this 
show a distinct "kink" is to be observed in the lower part of the neck, whilst the centre is 
unusually swollen. The fullest display is usually performed as the male approaches the 
female. The male then lies very flat on the water and stretches the head and neck to the 
fullest extent, at the same time blowing out the neck and frequently turning the head on 
one side so as to display its full beauty. Two or three males may thus often be seen 
together laying themselves out to attract the female's attention, and the effect is somewhat 
striking. During these moments of intense excitement the pupil of the eye of the male 
nearly disappears, and the eye itself seems to blaze a very rich lacquer red. It is often the 
case that even after pairing has taken place bad weather sets in and the pairs of Pochards 
separate, but with the recurrence of finer conditions many of the ducks at once re-pair and 
leave the central lake and seek out smaller ponds and lakes in the vicinity where they intend 
to nest. 
In the breeding season Pochards seem to prefer small lakes whose sides are overgrown 
with dense vegetation or even large reed-beds. Small islands are also very attractive to 
them, but, if absent, they will seek out nesting sites that run into meadows of sedge and 
grass, from which flow channels connected with the main pools. They are not at this 
season averse to the close proximity of man, and the pair of birds keep very close together 
until the female commences to sit. The nest is usually built just above the level of the 
water on the edge of a clump of reeds where the soil is firm, or in the centre of a small 
island. As a rule, it is entirely covered with undergrowth and well lined with down 
(in British Birds, ii. p. 23). The female usually deposits from 7 to 9 eggs. Leverkaln 
records one nest of 10 eggs and Saunders {Manual, p. 444) and Naumann one each of 13 
eggs, whilst Professor Newton had a clutch of 14 eggs sent from Yorkshire, probably 
the result of two females laying in the same nest. Full clutches are usually to be found in 
England in the first or second week in May, and the second week in May in Germany, and 
third week in May in Scotland. 
" The female shows great devotion," says Naumann, " during the time of sitting. She approaches 
the nest with caution, flies past it accompanied by the male without however circling round it, lowers 
herself with the male on to the water at some distance away from it, and both sit there motionless for 
some time, with very erect necks, until finally the female, swimming in an attitude of diving, or running, 
hurries back to it. The male meanwhile remains on the open water close by and warns her of the 
approach of any danger with a loud gabbling cry, but is always the first to take to flight, and later on, 
when the sitting is over, troubles himself no more about her, stays in the day time far away from her on 
the open water near, and only comes back to her in the evening if she leaves the nest for a rest." 
The female keeps adding down, plucked from her own breast, to her nest as incubation 
proceeds, until there is a considerable quantity deposited, and with this she covers the eggs 
carefully if she leaves the nest. 
