78 British Diving Ducks 
allows the disturber of the peace to approach almost to touching distance before, with a rattling noise, but 
as a rule uttering no cry, she flies away. 
"It is a characteristic of this species that, in flying away at such times they always foul the eggs. 
The scared duck never flies far away from the nest, merely flying to the next pool, and watching from 
there, with a gentle crackling sound, the proceedings going on at her nest, in order to fly back there 
as soon as the disturbance is over. Once or twice I was able to observe that the Anas marila had laid 
eggs in a nest of a female of the Margus serrator species. That the reverse was nowhere the case was 
proved by the down lining of such nests, which could only have been supplied by the Sager [lit. Saw 
bills.?). Somewhat larger than the nests of the "saw" duck usually are, it is said that such nests 
are brooded over by both females in common quite peacefully. The two sittings, even if touching each 
other in the small space, were still quite separate from each other. I have never been able to detect any 
robbing of eggs from the next-door nests by the duck breeding here. 
" The nest of the Anas marila is never found singly, but always in proximity to others of the same 
species, or in a colony of various species. Under all circumstances — as is the case without exception with 
all duck — a shallow, plate-shaped hollow is scraped out, and this is provided with a hemispherical lining 
of abundant, almost black-brown down, interspersed with a good deal of coarse dry grass and stalks, 
though not as much as the Anas penelope. The nest is always so placed that it is somewhat over- 
shadowed by its surroundings, e.g. beside the bigger stones, at the bottom of small declivities, in cracks 
in the ground or of lava and basalt rocks, even at times rather deep down in cavities of the lava. I 
found nests of Fuligula placed like this at a depth of one or two feet, and even as far as the arm 
can reach. Where the character of the ground did not afford such protection, care is taken that the 
low-growing birch and osier undergrowth, or tall-growing stalks of weeds, should all help in hiding it. 
The site of the nest was never more than a few paces away from the water ; but at the same time it was 
only exceptionally that I found any in immediate proximity to the water. In the pouch of down, formed 
by the lining of the nest, lie the eggs ; these have a smooth, slightly shiny shell, of a brownish-grey, 
rarely greenish-grey colour, at times they have only a washed-out green band ; their shape is a rather 
elongated one, the pointed end of the egg is so blunted that at first sight the two ends might be confused. 
The egg, in comparison with the size of the bird, has a considerable volume, the measurements (the mean 
of far more than a hundred eggs measured by me) are: length through, 6.3 cms.; breadth at largest 
point, 4.3 cms. One solitary egg which I have not counted amongst these has the remarkably small 
measurements of 4.6 cms. in length ; breadth, 3.4 cms. According to Pastor J.'s assertion, this was the 
last of a sitting. Also as regards the number of the eggs laid by the Anas marila, I must give the 
statement of Pastor J. He says : ' The Dukond lays from nine to eleven eggs, and the removal of some 
of the eggs in no way increases the production of them ; it makes no difference, on the contrary, whether 
eggs are taken away or not, the number mentioned is never exceeded. Ten was the largest number 
I found in one nest. When I sought information about the outside limits of their arrival and departure, 
I learnt that the Anas marila had arrived in 1895 between the ist and 6th May, and the departure took 
place in August, but my informant considered he could only give the dates of migration approximately 
in the case of this, as of other species of duck, but he has not imparted any more precise observations to 
me on the subject.' " 
The female Scaup begins to lay at the end of May, and nests with fresh eggs may 
be found until the first week in July. I noticed that if suddenly scared off the nest 
the female always flies away, commencing with a run. In doing so, she always fouled 
the nest with her dung as she departed. The majority of the young are hatched in 
the middle of July, but I saw several broods in the first week of July. The female 
incubates the eggs for four weeks (Hantzsch). In all the subsequent rearing of the 
brood, and the habits of the young, the natural history of the spiecies is similar to the 
Tufted Duck. I noticed that for the first few days the female Scaup, with newly-hatched 
young, did not leave the slow-moving stream, running between steep banks, just below our 
camp. In fact this little river, several hundred yards long before it reaches the big lake, 
