228 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



were within an hour or two of Geut-El-Nosara (the port of 

 that lake) flock after flock crossed our bows, all Wigeons, 

 and chiefly drakes. There was no mistake about them, 

 even if I had not examined four or five which had been 

 caught. The only one we shot ourselves was a female, on 

 tiie 3rd of March, near Minieh. Hasselquist says, — "This 

 kind was brought alive in great numbers (to Cairo) about 

 the middle and latter end of November ; they are caught 

 in nets at night, just before the water is entirely returned or 

 dried up."* 



196. Pochard, FnUgttla fcrina (Linn.); " Homr." 



Of all the myriads of Ducks at lake Menzaleh, Pochards 

 seemed the commonest. I saw acres and acres of them. 

 In one place an immense flock, which I believe were chiefly 

 Pochards, extended three miles as they sat upon the water, 

 without any visible break. The Pochard is occasionally 

 subject to a white patch on the foreneck. I have seen two 

 drakes and a duck thus marked. f 



197. White-eyed Duck, Nyroca fcrriiginea (Gm.). 



We only got this in the winter. It was not uncommon 

 then in the Delta, and we shot six, but only one was a fine 

 old drake. 



* A tame Wigeon of my father's began to shed its plumage on the 

 17th of June, and completed the moult on the 20th of August. It 

 began to reassume the male plumage on the 19th of September, and 

 finished the process November loth, having been nearly four months of 

 the year in a state of change. In the above instance I do not think the 

 period was lengthened by confinement, for I have often noticed what a 

 long time the drakes of this and other species are in getting their per- 

 fect dress. 



f My father kept a drake Pochard thirteen years. Once, when he 

 was carrying it from one pond to another, its red eye changed to yellow 

 from fright, but rapidly recovered its original colour after being released. 



