104 AYTHYA FERINA. 



the bill, the head and hind neck reddish-brouni ; the fore part 

 of the cheeks paler ; the loicer part of the neck all round and 

 the back greyish-brown, the latter obscurely iindulated with 

 ivhite ; the rest as in the male, but duller, and the sides dusky. 

 Young like the female. 



Male in Winter. — The Red-headed Pocliard, although 

 nearly resembling the celebrated American Canvas-backed 

 Duck, is not liable to be mistaken for any British species- 

 Its body is large, full, depressed, of an elliptical form ; the 

 neck rather long, and thick ; the head large, oblong, com- 

 pressed, rounded above. 



The bill is about the same length as the head, higher than 

 broad at the base, of almost equal breadth throughout, being 

 but very slightly -wider toward the end, "vvhich is rounded ; 

 upper mandible with the lateral basal margins concave, the 

 upper acutely emarginate, the frontal angles narrowly pointed, 

 the ridge broad, rather concave, gradually narrowed, convex 

 toward the end, the dorsal line straight and declinate to 

 beyond the nostrils, then slightly concave ; the sides nearly 

 erect at the base, becoming gradually more declinate and 

 convex, the edges marginate, concealing the internal oblique 

 lamellae, of which there are about sixty, the unguis small, 

 oblong, abruptly rounded at the end ; nasal space small, ellip- 

 tical, sub-basal ; lower mandible flattened, with the intercrural 

 space very long and rather narrow, the crura slender, their 

 lower outlines slightly rearcuate, the dorsal line nearly straight, 

 the edges erect, with about seventy lamellae, the unguis 

 obovato-triangular, being abruptly rounded. 



The nnoutli is rather narrow. The tongue fleshy, deeply 

 grooved above, an inch and ten-tAvclfths long, six-twelfths 

 and a half in breadth, its sides furnished with two series of 

 bristly filaments, the tip thin, horny, rounded. The oeso- 

 phagus is eleven inches long, of moderate width, from five to 

 eight-twelfths in breadth ; the proventriculus nine-twelfths in 

 breadth, its glandules cylindrical, and two-tAvclfths long. 

 The stomach extremely muscular, oblique, elliptical, com- 

 pressed, two inches and a half in length, an inch and three- 

 fourths in breadth : the lateral muscles more than half an 



