BRITISH BIRDS» 
146 
fine pale crimfon. The head, in adult males, Is 
furniftied with a great quantity of feathers, which 
form a kind of ruff, furrounding the upper part of 
the neck ; thofe on each fide of the head, behind, 
are longer than the reft, and hand out like ears : 
this ruif is of a bright ferruginous colour, edged on 
the underfide with black. The upper parts of the 
plumage are of a footy or moufe-coloured brown 5 
the under parts of a glofly or filvery white : the in- 
ner ridge of the wing is white ; the fecondaries of 
the fame colour, forming an oblique bar acrofs the 
wings, when clofed : the outfide of the legs are 
dufky, the infide and toes of a pale green. 
This fpecies is common in the fens and lakes in 
various parts of England, where they breed and 
rear their young. The female conceals her nefl 
among the flags and reeds which grow in the water, 
upon which it is faid to float, and that flie hatches 
her eggs amidil the moiflure which ouzes through 
it. It is made of various kinds of dried fibres, 
fialks and leaves of water plants, and (Pennant fays) 
of the roots of bugbane, llalks of water-lilly, pond- 
weed, and water-violet ; and he aflerts, that when 
it happens to be blown from among the reeds, it 
floats about upon the furface of the open water. 
Thefe birds are met with in almofl every lake in 
the northern parts of Europe, as far as Iceland, 
and fouthward to the Mediterranean ; they are alfo 
found in various parts of America. 
