RED-CHESTED WHISTLING DUCK.
RED-CRESTED DUCK. RED-CRESTED POCHARD.
Anas rufina, TEMMINCK.
Fidigula rufina, GOULD. SELBY.
roides rufina, EYI'ON.
is—A Duck. Rufina—Rufus—red.
T i n s curious-looking bird is a native of the south-eastern parts of
Europe, and the middle and eastern portions of Asia. In the former
it is plentiful in Italy, especially in the south, Dalmatia, the south
of France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Turkey, Greece, and Hungary,
in which last it is said most frequently to breed, and in the
latter occurs in Persia, Himalaya, and the Dukkuu in India, the
south of Siberia, Tartary, and about the Caspian Sea. Specimens
were also procured from the north of Africa by Sir Thomas Kcadc,
and from Barbary, in the same region, by Shaw.
Its natural resorts are fresh-water lakes, rivers, ponds, pools, and
bogs, whether with or without the accompaniment of the native forest,
and to these it keeps, preferring the water to the land. It appears
to be but rarely seen on the sea-coast, as not sharing with others of
its tribe in a natural predilection for the ' t h e Sea! the Sea! the open
Sea!'
The first occurrence of this species in England was at Boston, in
Lincolnshire, where a male was shot in the month of January, 1826;
it was at the time in company with some "VYigeons. Several more
were procured the same winter; some of them in the London markets.
Mr. E. Newman, in the 'Zoologist,' page 4166, records the occurrer.ee
of another example at Boston, in Lincolnshire, in January, 1854. One
was shot in Cornwall, at Swanpoid, near Falmouth, in February, 1845.
Another of these birds was killed at Horsea Mere, in ^ orfolk, on
the 12th. of January, 1844; one also at Yarmouth, in the same county.