Ferruginous Duck 37 
that they are very partial to the hard seeds of the Potamogeton, which they swallow with 
quantities of fine sand and small stones to assist digestion. 
Ferruginous Ducks obtain most of their food by diving in waters of moderate depth, 
and like to keep near the banks in such places as are not too thickly overgrown with reeds, 
&c. They search the bottom amongst the mud and stones after the manner of other diving 
ducks, but do not remain so long beneath the surface as the Common Pochard. They also 
spend much of their time paddling near the edge of a pond and tilting-up to reach their 
food after the manner of other ducks. On such occasions the food is often snapped off 
and brought to the surface to be devoured. They will take quantities of grass seeds, 
Carex, or even grass if found floating on the surface, and for this reason they are very 
easy to keep in confinement. 
Jackel [Birds of Bavaria, p. 338) found in the stomachs of shot birds— worms, the 
larvae of Libelhda and Phrygaiudes, beetles, cut grass. Polygonum, Potamogeton, and the 
remains of Nymphcea alba. Like other ducks, they spend most of the warm hours of 
the day in nesting and preening, and will go ashore to do so and to sleep, retiring to some 
small green island or bank hidden in vegetation. In this respect they are more retiring 
in their habits than other diving ducks, although many do not leave the open water at 
midday, but rest on its surface to sleep. Towards the evening they become active and 
commence feeding, which is continued throughout the night and early morning. In flight 
the Ferruginous Duck is easily distinguished from other ducks except the female Tufted, 
but the bright white secondaries are always more conspicuous, and at close range the form 
of the bill and head are also quite different. When swimming they sit low on the water 
with the head well sunk, and their colour makes them easy to identify. The tail trails 
on the water and the whole bird has the appearance of being much smaller than it really is. 
The walk is waddling and laboured, and the bird is not much addicted to going ashore. 
They are expert divers, but do not remain long under water owing to the fact that their 
food is generally procured at a lesser depth than that of the other members of this group. 
They dive frequently at short intervals or approach shallows and tip up or merely reach 
below the water with the neck outstretched. 
Naumann's description of their tameness or timidity is a very correct one : — 
" They are less cautious than many other species, but on large pieces of water, where they can easily 
avoid danger, they are timid, though less so than some, a fact which is especially noticeable if you come 
upon them when they are not in company with other kinds and so are not incited by them to a speedier 
escape. In this way they make the black coot, which are so fond of forcing their company upon them, 
much more cautious by their mistrusting behaviour. If they come in smaller numbers or only solitary 
specimens appear on the smaller ponds, particularly if it is at an unwonted haunt, they might really 
be called stupid, for they are often, even when there is a good deal of going to and fro of passers by, so 
incautious that they will only avoid a person if he comes too near- — i.e. within about 30 paces, and even 
permit a solitary person approaching them with care to come still closer, or, if they do fly away, they 
come down again very close by. The female on the nest or with the young behaves still more fearlessly, 
whereas the adult males behave much more cautiously under such circumstances, but are often enough to 
be found there by anyone with a gun. 
*' Their sociableness is not great and more confined to their own species, so that even isolated 
specimens will not easily join with other species, and this is done still less by small companies of the 
fulig. nyroca, such as we observed in our district at the time of migration, when they always keep aloof 
from flocks of other species, and this is still more the case in places where, as I saw them in the regions 
of the Banat in Hungary, they are collected in flocks of 50 or more." 
