28 British Diving Ducks 
autumn, whilst great numbers breed in the prairie-sloughs of these States, and up in 
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Of their further distribution I need not speak, 
as they cannot, properly speaking, be considered the same as the Common Pochard. 
In winter in India the Common Pochard assembles in numbers on the great jheels, 
morasses, and lakes, part open water and part morasses and jungle, and British sportsmen 
kill large numbers. 
When killed on fresh water where there is good feeding, the Common and the American 
Pochard are by far the best birds for the table of any of the diving ducks. There is a tender- 
ness and delicacy about the flesh that renders it highly popular with the gourmand, and I 
have eaten " Red-heads" in Delmonico's restaurant in New York which, with perfect cook- 
ing, seemed to be quite as good as the more expensive Canvas-back. So particular, indeed, 
are some American gentlemen as to the cooking of this bird, that a second or two longer or 
less before the fire is said to spoil the dish. A story is told in New York of one gourmet 
who, after looking at the bird before him, called his negro butler and said, "John, pass 
this once again through the kitchen!' 
Certain parasitic insects of the genera Dolophorus and Lipeurus, which also occur in other 
species, are found in the feathers of the Common Pochard, and in the entrails worms of the 
genera tcenia and distamim are found in numbers. 
In Germany numbers of these ducks are captured by means of nets hung vertically under 
the water. A few are also taken in Lincolnshire and Holland by means of the stand-net 
fixed on the sands, but they are seldom captured in the decoy-pipes of this country, owing 
to their habit of keeping away from the land in an off-shore breeze, which brings surface- 
feeders in to their destruction. 
The Common Pochard is one of the easiest of ducks to keep in confinement, and will 
live for many years on a grain-food diet, varied with duckweed and such natural food as a 
pond may afford. They soon become tame, and if kept with other species that do not molest 
them, they will breed freely in confinement. The young are also easy to rear. Mr. E. 
Knight {Field, July 23, 19 10) records the fact that he has kept a male Pochard in confine- 
ment at Keswick Old Hall, Norwich, for thirteen and a half years. Mr. Meade Waldo 
(British Birds, iii. p. 116) says he has kept a female Pochard for twenty-two years, and 
that she reared a brood annually for twenty years. 
The Common Pochard has crossed with several species of ducks. Several hybrids 
between this species and the Ferruginous Duck are known. The first to occur in this 
country was, I believe, shot by Colonel Paget, in Norfolk, about i860. The bird passed 
into the collection of Frederick Bond, and at the sale of his collection at his death I pur- 
chased it. Other examples, all I think males, were shot at Rollesby Broad, Norfolk (W. R. 
Fisher, Zool., pp. 1137--1778), now in the possession of J. H. Gurney, who has another 
example, killed in the same county (February 1859). A third example is in the Booth 
collection, Brighton ; and a fourth, caught alive at Saham Toney here, lived for some 
time at Keswick Hall, Norwich ; the last example, a beautiful male, now before me, was 
shot by a local gunner at Potter Heigham, Norfolk, in the later part of March 1909, and was 
exhibited at the meeting of the B. O. C, June 16, 1909, by the Hon. E. Montagu. The two 
males, my own specimen and that kindly lent to me by Mr. Montagu, are almost exactly 
similar. Head and neck, deep red brown, a little darker than Common Pochard ; bill, similar 
