62 British Diving Ducks 
(Batsch), Echynorhynchus stellaris (Molin.), Distomum recurvahtm (Linst), Holostomum 
erraticum (Duj.). 
On the whole the Tufted Duck is not very easy to shoot on large sheets of water. But 
even in such places they may be stalked from behind banks or through woods, and watched 
when swimming within shot of the shore. When the flock is found on feed the gunner 
can then run in and obtain his chance as the birds rise to the surface. When little 
disturbed it is possible to sail within gunshot of a flock on the open water, but the old birds 
are usually difficult to obtain in this way unless they are "cornered" in some backwater or 
arm of the lake, when they will not fly overhead but pass within shot to the open waters 
of the lake. I have killed many by lying hidden on small islands in Loch Leven. There 
they will pass at close range on stormy days, but always keep well out of shot of the larger 
islands. Winged birds shot from the shore are seldom recovered unless shot again at once 
before they commence to dive, but from a boat winged birds may be tired out and killed 
more easily than Pochard or Scaup, since they neither possess the constitution nor vitality 
of these ducks. 
On small lakes or ponds Tufted Ducks are easily shot, as there is always some corner 
or point of land where the gunner can stand in bushes and hide himself to intercept them as 
they leave the place. It is merely necessary to find this spot and send a man round to 
drive the birds and they will come straight to the gunner. Moreover, in leaving small 
sheets of water Tufted Ducks do not rise high, and so offer an easy mark. 
In confinement the Tufted Duck is one of the easiest and most charming to keep 
in good health. I have kept many, and found they soon became tame and sociable with 
other water-fowl. 
Tufted Ducks were first exhibited at the Zoological Society's Gardens in 1831, and 
up to the year 1848 bred regularly in the "Three-island Pond," and almost every one 
who has kept these birds in company with other surface-feeding and diving ducks, and 
given them suitable nesting sites, has succeeded in breeding them. In confinement they 
are easily kept on Spratt's biscuit meal, crissel, barley, wheat, with for a change 
buckwheat, oats, hemp, and crushed Indian corn (H. Wormald). They will eat quantities 
of pond-weed, and in the winter Mr. Wormald uses chopped marigolds, turnips, potatoes, 
and grass as a substitute for weed. I have found my Tufted Ducks soon ate soaked 
bread, a food to which the birds in St. James's Park seem very partial. When rearing young 
Tufted Ducks, or the young of any diving species, it is a mistake to allow them to go 
by themselves into deep water. A flat zinc tray 6 inches square by | inch deep is used by 
Mr. Wormald and found efficient by other rearers. In this should be placed hard-boiled 
eggs chopped fine and mixed with wild-duck meal and bread crumbs, whilst duckweed, 
dried flies, and ants' eggs should be floated on the surface of the water. " It sometimes 
happens," says Mr. Wormald (Notes on the Management of Ornamental Water Fowl, 
p. 13), "that young ducklings with a foster-mother refuse to eat anything; they may often 
be induced to pick if the food is sprinkled about the level of their bills on blades of grass, 
or even on the backs of their companions ; any moving object such as a spider suspended 
above them by the web, or a fly crawling up the side of their foster-mother, may induce 
them to take their first meal, and, once started, they soon learn to pick up their food. 
Duckweed especially is a great help to the young birds, as it will be found to be full 
