FULIGULA CRISTATA.
Tufted Duck.

Anas fuligula, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 47.

scandiaca, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 520.

—— cristata, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indig. Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 39.
colymbis, Pall. Zoog. Ross.-Asiat., tom. ii. p. 266.

Glaucium minus, Briss. Orn., tom. vi. p. 411, tab. xxxvii. fig. 1.

Fuligula cristata, Steph. Cont. Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xii. p. 190

Nyroca fuligula, Flem. Phil. of Zool., vol. ii. p. 260.

Aythya fuligula, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 564.

cristata, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. 916.

Platypus fuligula, Brehm.

 

 

 

 

Tuts bonny little Duck, with its graceful top-knot and brilliant golden eye, plays a conspicuous part among
the water-birds of the British Islands, to which, however, it must, I think, be regarded as only a winter
visitant ; for, although it is known to breed in several parts of England, the greater number of those that
come to us from the north in September and October depart again in March and April with the same
regularity as the Redwing, the Fieldfare, and other northern migrants. It is unnecessary to name any
particular counties or shires as localities frequented by it; for it is equally numerous in every one, from the
extreme north of Scotland to the most southern portion of England ; and it is just as widely spread over
Ireland, in all suitable situations, among estuaries, broads, and other great sheets of water. During very
severe weather it ascends such rivers as the Thames, the Ribble, and the Tamar, and is there frequently met
with singly, in pairs, or little flocks. On the extensive broads of our eastern coasts it occurs in still greater
numbers, frequently in company with other Fuliguline Ducks, Scaups, Pochards, &c. Now what I have
said as to the general dispersion of the Tufted Duck over the British Islands applies equally to its distribution
over the Continent of Europe, indeed, I may say, over the temperate regions of the Old World, from Holland
to Japan; in the north it is especially numerous in Norway, Finmark, Russia, and Siberia; in the south
it extends from Morocco eastwards to India and China: it is equally common in all suitable localities in the
northern regions of Africa, being plentiful, according to Loche, on the great lakes of Algeria; many travellers
testify to its being numerous on the banks of the Nile; Mr. Tristram states that it is found in Palestine ;
and, lastly, Dr. Hartlaub informs us, in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1868, that it goes as
far south as the Pelew Islands, and remarks that this must be regarded as a curious fact, since the bird had
not been known previously to occur in any of the Indian or Polynesian Islands. ‘The Tufted Duck does not,
I believe, go to South Africa, neither does it visit Australia, nor is it found in North America. With respect
to its occasionally breeding in England, Mr. A. G. More states, on the authority of Mr. Borrer, that a brood
of Tufted Ducks was found near Horsham in May 1853, and another at West Grinstead in 1854; that
Mr. W. H. Slaney had known of one nest in Shropshire ; that mention is made in the ‘ Zoologist’ (p. 2879)
of a brood having been observed on Malham Water, in the West Riding of Yorkshire ; and that Mr. Hancock
describes the bird as breeding occasionally in Northumberland. The above are supposed to be instances of
truly wild birds having remained here to breed while the main body departed to their summer homes in
countries further north. At Clumber and Osberton, in Nottinghamshire, numbers breed every year: [
am sure I shall be speaking within bounds when I say that seven years ago as many as thirty broods were
annually hatched on those splendid estates ; and I see no limit to the increase of these pretty Ducks thereon
if the voracious pike be kept within bounds, a point of the utmost importance ; for the late excellent fifth
Duke of Newcastle informed me that almost every Tufted Duckling hatched on the edges of the Clumber
Lake was devoured by that tyrant of fresh waters, that the few which escaped destruction during the
infantile stages of their existence were subsequently pulled down, and that the keepers had seen a fully
adult bird in the jaws of a twenty-pound pike. On questioning the Duke as to the origin of his birds, he
told me he believed they were the descendants of a pinioned pair that had been placed on the lake many
years back. The Tufted Ducks at Osberton, which breed as freely but in lesser numbers than at Clumber,
are doubtless from the same stock. The two properties are contiguous, and the river unites their waters.
My late excellent and valued friend G. S. Foljambe, Esq., regarded his Tufted Ducks with the highest
interest, a feeling fully participated in by his son and successor, the present Mr. F. J. S. Foljambe, who, in
January 1871, kindly favoured me with the following notes respecting them :—

“T hope soon to get you a pair of Tufted Ducks, and shall be very proud to see the portraits of