rarely visiting the land, feeding both by day and by night (chiefly the latter), and often flying for considerable distances, about dusk, to waters where food is abundant. Although its flight, at first, is slow and laboured, it soon becomes very rapid, and the quickly-beating wings make a rustling sound very characteristic of this species. The Pochard is another expert diver, and by this means obtains most of its food, visiting the bottom and bringing up masses of weeds to eat them on the surface. On the coast its food largely consists of crustaceans and molluscs, as well as marine plants. The note of this species is a loud and harsh _kurr_. The haunts of the Pochard in summer are large and open sheets of water, surrounded by a luxuriant growth of sedge, rush, iris, and similar plants, or situated on higher ground clothed with heath, gorse, and coarse grass. It is a social bird during the breeding period, several females often nesting close together. The nest is always made near fresh water, and in many cases absolutely floats on rafts of fallen and rotting vegetation several yards from the bank, or rests in some tussock surrounded by shallow water. A bed of iris, or a crown of rushes, is another favourite spot. It is made of dry grass and fragments of any aquatic vegetation obtainable, and lined with down from the female’s body. The eggs—usually from eight to twelve, sometimes more—are brownish-gray. As is usual among Ducks, the female alone brings up the numerous family. This Duck is widely distributed over many parts of Europe, Northern Asia, and North America, the birds of the latter continent being regarded by some ornithologists as a distinct species. GOLDEN-EYE.