Ferruginous Duck 41 
annually, and have found that the young birds of the previous year will breed in the 
first spring, but not as freely as birds of two years and over. Mr. F. E. Blaauw, who has 
been successful in breeding many rare water-fowl in Holland, kindly sends me the following 
note : — 
" The White-eyed Pochard is a very free breeder in confinement, and the chicks are easy to rear. 
The duck makes her nest, either in a box which is placed on a pole in the water, and which is shaped 
like a small dog-kennel, or in the sedge along the water's edge. The eggs are from 7 to 1 1 in 
number, and are dark-buff or pale coffee-brown in colour. Incubation lasts from 27 to 28 days 
as a rule. As soon as the young birds are full-grown and able to fly the irides of the young males 
begin to turn lighter in colour, so that even before the autumn it is quite easy to distinguish the sexes 
with certainty. At one year it is scarcely possible to distinguish young from old males. The only 
difference between young and old females at one year is that the young are lighter in colour, whilst 
the young male is not so brilliant as the old one." 
The ducklings are easily reared on ants' eggs, bread crumbs, and duckweed. 
In confinement, numerous hybrids between this species and the Tufted Duck have 
been reared. It has also bred with the Common and the Red-crested Pochard. "This 
species," says Mr. Blaauw {Ornamental Waterfowl, p. 208), " readily produces hybrids with 
the Red-headed Pochards, and if a hybrid of this union is again mated with a White-eyed 
Duck, the offspring is scarcely to be distinguished from pure Nyroca leucopthalmar 
VOL. I. 
F 
