^ ALLEN*S naturalist's LIBRARY. 



L THE RED-CRESTED POCHARD. NETTA RUFINA. 



Anas rufina, Pallas, Reise, ii. App. p. 713 (1773). 



Aythya rufina, Macg. Br. B. v. p. 109 (1852). 



Fidigula rufiiia, Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 559, pi. 435 (1873); 



B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 128 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarr. 



Br. B. iv. p. 403 (1884); Seebohm, Br. B. iii. p. 567 



(1885) ; Saunders, Man. p. 431 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. 



Br. B. part x. (1889). 

 Netta rufiiia, Salvad. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 328 (1895). 



Adult Male. — Back light drab-brown, including the mantle, 

 upper back, and scapulars ; lower back, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts black ; a white patch on each side of the mantle ; 

 wing-coverts dull ashy, those round the end of the wing white ; 

 bastard-wing and primary-coverts also ashy ; primaries ashy- 

 brown externally, as well as at the tips of the inner webs, with a 

 sub-terminal black bar on the latter, the inner webs otherwise 

 white, forming a large " mirror," extending on to the outer 

 webs of the inner primaries, which are white excepting for their 

 blackish tips ; secondaries also white, with a sub-terminal bar of 

 ashy ; the inner ones pearly-grey, the innermost brown, like the 

 scapulars ; tail ashy-grey ; crown of head much crested, cinna- 

 mon ; lores, sides of face, and throat vinous-chestnut ; a band 

 down the hind-neck, sides of neck and upper mantle, as well as 

 the under surface of the body black, rather browner on the 

 abdomen ; sides of body white, the feathers adjoining the 

 black colour vermiculated with dusky ; the flank-feathers light 

 brown at the ends; axillaries and under wing-coverts white; 

 " bill brilliant crimson, sometimes a little inclining to vermi- 

 lion ; nail brown or white, tinged with brownish-horn or pink 

 horny, brown or yellow at tip ; feet dingy salmon-colour or 

 reddish-orange, dusky on the joints and blackish on the webs ; 

 iris varying from brown to red, in very old birds " (^A. O. 

 Hume). Total length, 21 inches; culmen, 2*15; wing, 10*3; 

 tail, 27; tarsus, i*6. 



Adult Female. — Different from the male. Light brown above, 

 paler on the scapulars, which have whity-brown ends ; lower 

 back and rump dusky-brown, the upper tail-coverts paler 

 brown ; wing-coverts light brown ; quills as in the male, but 

 the white on the inner web of the primaries not quite so ex- 



