Common Pochard 2,5 
Mr. Heatley Noble sends me the following interesting note to the effect that the female 
sometimes deposits no down in the nest : " I found several nests at Loch Spynie, near 
Elgin, and even when the eggs were on the point of hatching there was not one particle 
of down. All the nests were in rushes, the nest itself being very much like that of the 
Coot, and surrounded by water. Other nests that I have seen both in this country and 
in Spain or Hungary contained the usual amount of down." 
On the other hand, Captain Brander Dunbar, the owner of Loch Spynie, writes 
(May 4, 19 1 2): "About a score of pairs of Pochard breed regularly on Loch Spynie, and 
personally I have never seen one nest without down." Wherefore the fact that Mr. Heatley 
Noble found nests there without down must be regarded as something very unusual. 
Mr. Gerald Legge sends me the following note descriptive of a female Pochard going 
on to her nest: "To-day (June 7, 1912) I watched my female Pochard go on to her nest. 
She is very tame, so I waited at a distance of one yard. Soon she came and sat on the 
edge of the nest for two minutes, all the time keeping up a gentle * crooning ' to herself. 
Then she settled down on the nest without uncovering the down from the eggs. After 
sitting for about one minute she turned half round, and with one leg pushed some of the 
covering of the eggs to the side and edge of the nest. She then made another half-turn on 
the other side, and pushed more down on to the edge. Both times the movement was 
effected by stretching her leg out behind with toes and webs spread." 
When the eggs are ready to be hatched she is very tame, and leaves the nest and 
its vicinity with great reluctance when disturbed. I was able to stroke a female in a nest 
found on Loch Spynie on May 1891 without causing her to leave the place. Observers 
seem to be agreed that the young do not leave the nest until the day after they are hatched, 
and they are then tended with the most assiduous care by the mother. At first she keeps 
them close to the edge of the reeds, especially if there is any wind, and dives for food, which 
she breaks up and offers to them. Very soon they learn to catch flies and pick up floating 
seeds, and they may be seen diving of their own accord when only a day or two old. The 
cry of the young is a gentle " peep," which they emit until fully fledged and able to fly. 
From early days the young are expert divers, and soon learn to escape by that method 
if threatened with danger, but on first alarm they pack closely together, as if for mutual 
protection. Before reaching full powers of flight. Pochards, as well as other ducks which 
nest in Central Europe, have many enemies to contend with. No doubt large pike kill 
them in numbers. Rats and others account for a certain number. Whilst Hen and (on 
the Continent) Marsh Harriers account for a few. Magpies, Carrion and Hooded Crows 
search out the nests and destroy the eggs. 
About the beginning of June the adult males show a disposition to desert the 
females, and to form into small bachelor parties, and by the middle of that month they 
usually desert the home lake and wander off to quiet and open sheets of water where there 
are no nesting females. In July and August these males, now in eclipse dress, are most 
difficult to find, and I spent several seasons in fruitless hunts for them before I could obtain 
specimens which were unknown in this country to collectors. Though many Pochards were 
nesting in Nairn and Elgin, I could not discover a single old male in July 1890, and it was 
not until the 31st July 1891 that I spied a small party of old males on the Loch of 
Flemington, a bare reedless loch near Gollanfield, Nairn. Before daybreak on the following 
VOL. I. D 
