The Common Pochard — Fuligula Ferina (Linnæus)
With this and the preceding species we come to the second division of the Ducks, which are known as Diving Ducks, in contradistinction to the others which are known as surface-feeders, although quite capable, when alarmed, of diving. Diving Ducks may be recognised by having the legs placed further back on the body, thus rendering their progress on land rather difficult, and by the hind toe being lobed.
The Pochard is chiefly a winter visitor to our shores, occurring not uncommonly in most seasons, but being in some years much more numerous than in others. It chiefly frequents the sea-coasts, feeding on crustacea, molluscs, and a certain amount of marine or aquatic weeds, which it procures almost entirely by diving, but it is by no means exclusively confined to such localities, and is frequently met with on inland waters, provided they are of sufficient size. In spring the majority leave us for their breeding haunts on the Continent, but as a breeding species with us it is on the increase, and may be found in a certain number of favoured localities throughout England and Scotland. In Ireland, where it is fairly abundant during the winter, it has only been known to nest on a few occasions.
The note of the male is a low whistle, but both sexes utter an alarm-note, which may be syllabled as “curre.” The nest is always placed in thick cover close to the water’s edge, and the eggs, which number seven to ten and are fairly large for the size of the bird, are of a greenish drab colour.
The adult male has the head and neck chestnut; the breast and upper parts black, the latter being finely freckled with grey. Under parts greyish white. Bill black, with a broad band of slate grey across it. Legs bluish grey. In its eclipse plumage the head becomes much browner, and the chest is brown, faintly barred with lighter. The female has the head, neck, and chest dull brown; the chin light, the rest of the plumage being like the male but duller. The young resemble the female. Length 19 in.; wing 8·25 in.