40 British Diving Ducks 
time, and the eggs are taken or destroyed, she will not lay again. The nesting habits, too, 
are very similar to those of other diving ducks. The male attends closely to the female 
until the young are hatched, and then leaves her to join other males. Once the female 
begins to sit she leaves the nest as little as possible, and, if constantly disturbed, will leave 
a place and construct a new one in a more hidden spot. At the beginning of June 
she begins to sit. She covers the eggs with down plucked from her breast, and this is 
increased every day till it forms a close pile surrounding the top and sides. Naumann 
gives the period of incubation at from twenty-two to twenty-three days, but Mr. A. E. 
Blaauw, who has bred the species in confinement, states in a letter to me that it is twenty- 
seven to twenty-eight days. The probability is that, like the Tufted Duck, it varies from 
twenty-four to twenty-eight days. 
In Kashmir the first birds breed in the end of April, but not many until the beginning 
of June (Stuart Baker). Mr. Heatley Noble found numbers of nests in Hungary, south 
of Buda Pesth, in company with the nests of Gadwall, Pochard, and Mallard. "The 
nests," he says, "were always placed near water, and often on an island. Full clutches are 
laid by June 6th; number of eggs, 8 to 12." Stuart Baker gives the usual number as 
6 to 10 in Kashmir, but says that in Europe they sometimes lay 12, and that he has 
known one instance, in Turkey, of 14 (p. 232). 
The early stages of the young and their life are very similar to other young diving 
ducks reared on freshwater lakes. As soon as they are dry they leave the nest and 
enter the water, where they feed on small insects, larvae, seeds, and the tender shoots of 
young water-plants, which are in many cases broken up for them by the mother. The 
young soon become the most expert divers, and can pass out of sight and hide as quickly 
as any duck if threatened with danger. In a fortnight some feathers are assumed, and 
pinion feathers in about two months. As soon as they are able to fly, and the old female 
has also moulted, the latter takes her brood away to larger sheets of water in the 
neighbourhood, and the migration commences about the middle of September. At this 
season young and old of both sexes join together, and move gradually to their regular 
winter resorts. 
During the breeding season the young birds are subject to constant molestation from 
various species of Harriers, whilst crows, magpies, and rats destroy a certain amount 
of eggs, whilst a wandering fox will often take an old bird off her eggs. Parasitic insects 
(Trinotum luridum, and Decophorus icterodes) infest the feathers, and in the intestines 
are found many of the same parasitic worms as infest the Common Pochard, such as 
Echinorhynchus filicollis, Distomum echinatujn, and Taenia lanceolata, &c. All sportsmen 
who have killed large numbers of these ducks in Southern Europe, Kashmir, and Northern 
India, state that when thus found in small lakes it is a very easy duck to shoot, but 
tough to kill. Even on large lakes their habits of rising in detached parties and flying 
at a low elevation render them easy of capture by an experienced shot, and thus account 
for the enormous bags made in Kashmir and India. 
The Ferruginous Duck is a species that is easy to keep in good health in confinement,^ 
and if proper attention is paid to food and surroundings it will nest with freedom. Mr. 
H. St. Quintin, Mr. Hugh Wormald, and other aviculturists have bred this duck almost 
^ Mr. J. H. Gurney has known a drake live in captivity for fifteen years (H. Saunders). 
