Jerdon, quoting a writer in the Indian Sporting Review,
says that " during the day they are constantly on the move,
now pursuing one another, now screaming, all up at once,
then down again." This, however, I have never observed,
except on very cold, or dull, cloudy days. On bright sunny days
—and we have few but these during the season in which they
visit us—their habit is to feed energetically, from about 8 to
10 A.M., and from io A.M. to 3 P.M. to rest either on some
shallow or floating in deep water, half the flock often asleep,
well out in the middle of the lake or stream. Now and again
there may be a little skirmishing and play, or washing and
diving, accompanied by a few calls and a little chattering;
but during the midday hours, quiescence is their characteristic.
On the whole, taking them all round, they are perhaps the
most troublesome* fowl to work, as they are certainly, in my
opinion, the handsomest that we have much to do with in India ;
and there is no species that I have more often watched or
more closely studied.
I have sometimes found them out of the water, on the land
a yard or two from the water's edge, grazing and picking up
small shells and insects, and they then walk better than the
other Pochards ; but it is rare to see them thus, though from
the frequency with which they are caught along with Gad wall
and other ducks by fall-nets on baited sward, it is probable that
during the night they more readily leave the water.
Their call-note, not very often heard by day unless they are
alarmed, is quite of the Pochard character—not the quack of
a duck, but a deep grating " kurr" Occasionally the males only,
I think, emit a sharp sibilant note—a sort of whistle, quite
different from that of the Wigeon, and yet somewhat reminding
one of that. I have never seen them do this, but I have
on two or three occasions heard the note from parties of them
when no other fowl were near; and once, when there were
only drakes, and I have repeatedly heard it at night, and
once by the Ana Sagur at Ajmere, three ducks came over
me in the dark, uttering this sound, and two that I dropped
proved to be Red-crests.
As a rule, these birds are always in mixed flocks, and I
have never seen any party consisting only of females ; but I
have, perhaps a dozen times in my life, come across flocks,
(one of them numbering fully fifty individuals) composed of
adult males only.
I have forgotten to notice their very characteristic wing
rustle, which, though resembling that of the Pochard, is louder
* Capt. E. A. Butler, no mean authority on such matters, remarks : " The Redcrested
Pochard is another of those wary birds that severely tries the sportsman's
patience, taking wing on the slightest indication of danger, and flying up and
down the tanks invariably out of gunshot. It is not very common, but occurs on
most of the large tanks."
and harsher ; their wings are short, and rapidly agitated make
a very distinct, palpitating, rushing sound, by which even a
single bird, passing anywhere near one in the stillness of the
night, can generally be recognized. I say generally, and I have
often so identified them, but one makes at times very erroneous
guesses. This last cold season, coming down the Jumna at
night, a bunch of fowl swept over us from astern, and as I
fired I set them down by the sound as Red-crests. The night
was stormy, the lightning was flashing incessantly, and there
was a head wind with drizzling rain. One bird dropped
dead (two others fell but disappeared), and proved to be a
Common Pochard. The fact is, that the wing rustle varies
a good deal according to whether fowl are going with or
against the wind, and whether the air is dry and clear, or
loaded with mist or drizzle ; and only a very practised fen-man
can always be quite sure of every bird, at all times, by the
sound of its wings.
THERE IS nothing as yet on record to lead to the belief that
the Red-crested Pochard breeds within our limits, though it
certainly does breed in Algiers very nearly, if not quite, as far
south as Kashmir and at Shiraz, which is further south than
Mooltan.
Dr. BaldamuSj who has taken many nests in Central
Germany, all however on "a pond overgrown with reeds, flags,
and other aquatic plants, close to the Mansfelder Salt Lake,"
tells us that they are " always placed in the rushes or flags,
usually on a small island in the pond or on the flags ; and,
like all ducks' nests, they have a foundation of rotten stems of
rushes or dead leaves on which a warm bed of down, plucked
from the breast of the female, is placed. When the female
leaves the nest quietly she covers her eggs, as do all ducks.
The eggs vary from eight to nine, ten being the exception, and
seven only in late settings." All his nests were taken between
the 12th of May and the 1st July, the later nests being much
incubated, so that in this locality they probably lay from the
1st May to the 15th of June.
The eggs are only moderately broad ovals, without gloss, a
bright, somewhat olive green when fresh and unblown* (fading
to a dull greyish olive or greenish grey when blown,) and
measure about 2-3 by 1*6.
* Salvin, in his " Five Months Birds-nesting in the Eastern Atlas," remarks :—
" In the open pools at the upper end of the marsh of Zana, I used frequently to
see several pairs of the Red-crested Duck. Two nests only were obtained. The
second lot, consisting of seven eggs, were of a most brilliant fresh green colour
""hen unblown ; the contents were no sooner expelled, and the egg dry, than the
delicate tints were gone, and their beauty sadly diminished."