Tufted Duck 
55 
Unless the sun is shining, when the snow-white flanks of the males appear bright and 
glistening, the appearance of this duck is very black. It swims low in the water, with the 
head well sunk between the shoulders. The tail is usually carried just above the water, 
but when alarmed, wounded, or bent on feeding, it can sink the body and depress the 
tail below, or even just under the water. At a short distance the golden eye and blue bill 
are very noticeable, and in the spring the eye of the male is very bright, the pupil being almost 
indistinguishable, especially when courtship is proceeding. If alarmed near the shore, the 
Tufted is very quick to apprehend danger. It raises the head, stiffens the neck, sinks the 
body slightly, and at once commences to swim to deep water at a considerable pace. 
Should it consider that it is not possible to gain a point beyond gun range by swimming, 
it rises at once with considerable splashing and some noise, especially if the day is calm 
or the wind off-shore, and then quickly rising with rapidly-beaten wings, it passes away. 
Before leaving a lake Tufted Ducks always circle over the water many times, sometimes 
rising to a height of twenty or thirty yards, and sometimes diving through the air towards 
the water again, which they always seem loath to abandon. The flight is rapid and very 
straight once the birds have decided on their course. They have a very black-and-white 
appearance in the air, and if the sun is upon them, even a glistening or " twinkling," which 
can be recognised from a great distance. 
In descending on the water, they sometimes do so abruptly if there is a good head 
wind, but if the day is calm they flutter at a lessening speed above the water and alight 
somewhat heavily on the surface. I have never seen one rise from the land. They waddle 
quickly to the water and rise from it. Even a female, flushed from the nest, half flies and 
half runs down to the water before mounting to the air. Mr. Dresser quotes Robert Gray 
(Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 386) with reference to the habits of this duck in the West 
of Scotland in winter. The latter, an excellent authority as a rule, says : " More frequently 
obtained in severe winters than in open seasons. This may arise from its habit of keeping 
out at sea, or well off shore in the firths and estuaries in moderate weather, and coming 
into our rivers to feed when it is too rough outside, &c." After a lifetime spent in the 
haunts of ducks in Scotland, I can say that this is a totally erroneous view of the circum- 
stances which lead to the appearance of Tufted Ducks on the Clyde in winter. Gray states 
that the birds are more frequent in severe winters than in mild ones, and this is due to the 
fact that Tufted Ducks are not dwellers on the open sea, or even the estuaries of Scotland, 
unless their true homes, which are freshwater lochs, are frozen hard. When driven by 
frost from the lakes of the east and north, large numbers of Tufted Duck pass to the west 
and south where there is always some open fresh water, and if this is not found, to the 
brackish estuaries of rivers such as the Clyde, where I have seen them in some numbers. 
The Tufted Duck is essentially a freshwater and not a sea duck in any sense of the word, 
and I have only once seen (September 1885) and killed a Tufted Duck on the open sea, which 
was on the coast opposite Tents Muir in Fife. I can firmly believe that in long-continued 
frosts such as are frequently experienced in Scotland in winter, the main body of Tufted 
Ducks migrate far to the south, namely to Southern Europe and North Africa, and return 
again in February and March. In hard winters I have seen companies of Tufted Ducks 
only in the estuaries of the Tay and Eden. If the winter continues to be severe, they dis- 
appear altogether. Many, however, remain the entire winter in the Hebrides, a few in 
