Tufted duck

Tufted duck.
Aythya fuligula  
[Linnaeus, 1758]

The tufted duck is a beautiful wee duck (at least the drake is), all decked out in jet black and snow white with bright yellow eyes.
My wife and I were fortunate enough to watch a tufted duck family raise a small brood of ducklings on the river Lea in Tottenham Hale when we lived there at the turn of the century and to see these tiny dark brown spikey (nidifugous) young dive for food at a day old was something I'll never forget.

We know the tufted duck as the tufted duck because of the drake's errr..... tuft.

But in times gone by, the duck was known at least scientifcally, as the ...
"sooty- throated diving duck"

(Aythya from aithuia: "a diving waterbird described by Aristotle" (Greek of course)
Fuligula from fuligo: "soot"  and gula: "throat"  (both Latin))

I guess the male tufted duck (drake!) does have a "sooty-looking throat" - and I guess its black throat is often more obvious than its tuft, so I can live with this scientific name....