114 FULIGULA NYROCA. 



the chin, and a dusky ring about the middle of the neck. 

 The back and wing-coverts dusky-brown, tinged with green. 

 The primary quills brownish-black ; the outer secondaries 

 white, with a black bar at the end ; the lower parts of the 

 body white. 



Length 16 inches ; wing from flexure 7f . 



Female. — According to Temminck, " the female has the 

 head, neck, breast, and sides of the body brown, but all the 

 featliers tipped with light reddish ; there is no ring on the 

 neck ; the feathers of the upper parts are blackish, and ter- 

 minated with pale brown ; the other parts as in the male. 



Length 15 inches. 



Habits. — This species, respecting the habits and distri- 

 bution of which very little is known, is said to inhabit chiefly 

 the eastern parts of Europe. India, Persia, Egypt, northern 

 Africa, southern Europe, Russia, and Iceland are mentioned 

 in connection with it. Temminck says it is a regular 

 migrant in Germany, and appears accidentally, or in small 

 numbers, in Holland, France, and England. In the latter 

 country it is occasionally met with, and has been killed in 

 Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Oxfordshire. Mr. Yarrell 

 states that it is not unfrequently to be found in the London 

 markets, the individuals there exposed being '' generally 

 received from the eastern counties between the Thames and 

 the Hvimber." I have not met with it in Scotland ; but Sir 

 William Jardine recollects having seen a fresh specimen in 

 the Edinburgh market, and Messrs. Baikie and Heddle say 

 it has been observed in Orkney, though very rarely. 



M. Temminck states that it feeds on insects, small frogs, 

 aquatic plants, and seeds, rarely on small fishes ; nestles 

 among the rushes that border the large rivers and marshes ; 

 and lays nine or ten eggs of a white colour, slightly tinged 

 with greenish. 



Young. — The young, when fledged, according to Tem- 

 minck, have the top of the head dusky -brown ; all the 

 feathers of the upper parts bordered and terminated with 



