WILDFOWL AND WILDFOWLING 
on wing or water — the reverse of the common kind — as indicated by its 
Spanish name of negrete. It shows no white whatever above water- 
line, except beneath the tail; indeed, the only other white in its plumage 
are the wing -bar and a small circular patch on the stomach — neither 
visible as it sits afloat. The bird is black above, while the head, neck, 
and sides are the richest glossy chestnut, very dark. The head very bulky, 
and body thickset, squat and round as a football. In none of the ornitho- 
logical works that I happen to possess are the figures of these birds even 
approximately correct-— that is, as they appear in life. 
The Red -crested pochard differs essentially from its congeners. Far 
more slim in build, long in neck and wing, it would never have struck 
me as belonging to the Fuligulince at all. Of all the handsome wildfowl 
tribe, this is one of the smartest and most striking. With bright red 
beak and eye, and a bushy orange -chestnut head that gleams in the 
southern sunlight with a burnished effulgence ; and its strong body- 
contrasts of glossy black and rosy white, the red -crested pochard presents 
one of the most effective of bird-pictures. The conspicuous white patches 
on either shoulder (near inset of wings) are, when at rest, inclined almost 
vertically, and not horizontally, as by a slip I showed in my drawing of 
this bird in “ Unexplored Spain,” p. 186. 
To return to British coasts: Should you see a straggling company 
swimming in some tidal channel, and the glass shows them to lie low in 
the water with a rakish carriage, and to keep diving three or four at a time, 
you may know them for mergansers. Scaup, golden -eye and the rest 
are often under water all at once; mergansers always leave sentries on 
the surface. All these fowl, nevertheless, are quite capable of realizing 
the presence of danger while yet submerged, and will, in such case, 
rise direct from the depths, treating water and air as though precisely 
alike. 
The Goosander frequents inland lochs and salmon-rivers, and is rarely 
seen on salt water. This is one of the very few wildfowl that are ‘‘ colour - 
protected ’’—and that remark applies only to the adult drakes. I mentioned 
the point years ago in my ” Bird -life of the Borders ” (second edition, 
p. 226), and the accuracy of that observation was confirmed quite recently 
thus : While examining a moorland loch, I saw four fowl which I took to be 
goosander ducks, not over 200 yards distant. But on bringing the glass 
to bear, I found they were accompanied by two adult drakes, whose 
(apparently conspicuous) black and white dress, assimilating with the 
417 
HHH 
