44 
British Diving Ducks 
possible that they had bred there. If this is the case, Baer's Pochard cannot stand as a 
British bird, but as there seems to be no certainty of this, as suggested by the Duchess 
of Bedford, I can merely give the supposition as a suggestion. Mr. Howard Saunders 
{B. Birds, vol. i. p. 14) deprecates the inclusion of this bird, to which the Hon. Walter 
Rothschild replied {B. Birds, vol. i. p. 63) that since the four specimens in the Zoological 
Gardens were the only known examples in Europe, and had never bred, the specimen shot 
at Tring should be regarded as a wild one. Moreover, he thinks this the most probable, as 
a strong easterly gale was blowing for a week before its capture. 
Under any circumstances we can only accept Baer's Pochard as a doubtful British bird, 
for it must remain under a certain suspicion, like the Baikal Teal and the Ring-necked 
Duck, whose winter range is far from British waters. 
Habits. — At present we have little information of this bird in its wild state, but when 
more is known its life will doubtless prove to be very similar to that of the Ferruginous 
Duck, to which it is so closely allied. Mr. Finn says they rise more easily on the wing 
and fly with less effort than other Pochards, and that the birds in confinement at Alipore 
seem to stand the heat less well than the Ferruginous Duck, probably owing to the fact 
that it is a bird of higher latitudes. 
In April 1902 I had the good fortune to witness the courtship of Baer's Pochard at the 
Zoological Gardens, London, on two occasions. The attitudes of the males were in every 
way similar to the Ferruginous Drakes. They laid themselves flat on the water and blew 
out the neck with air. In this moment of excitement the black pupils almost disappeared 
in the straw-coloured irides. Another attitude, also assumed by the Ferruginous Drake, 
was to throw up and back the head and neck, and also stretch the neck to its fullest extent, 
with head held horizontally, and blow it out with air. On neither occasion did I see a male 
throw the head right back until it touched the shoulders, as the Common Pochard does. 
