82 ANATID.E. 



Germany, included in the Histories of the Birds of that 

 country by Wolfe and Meyer, and by M. Brehm. 



The most interesting recent notice of this species I have 

 been able to find, is that by M. Menetries, in his Catalogue 

 Raisonne of objects in Zoology observed by the naturalists 

 attached to the Russian expedition to the vicinity of the 

 Caucasus and the frontiers of Persia. This gentleman men- 

 tions that in 1828 a considerable flock of this species appear- 

 ed at Leukoran, probably driven there by strong winds ; they 

 were so exhausted by flvtigue that they were caught by hand, 

 and many were preserved in captivity, to which they were 

 easily reconciled. They always kept together, and uttered 

 a gentle call-note when any one of their party separated from 

 the others, or when a bird of prey hovered over them : this was 

 the only sound that was heard. Of the food placed before 

 them they preferred green vegetables to grain, and drank often. 



In the adult bird the beak and the nail are almost black : 

 the irides hazel ; between the beak and the eye a white 

 patch ; round the eye, the top of the head, and down the 

 back of the neck, dark brownish-black ; on the ear-coverts 

 an angular patch of chestnut surrounded with white, ending 

 in a white streak passing downwards ; upper surface of the 

 body and wings very dark brown, almost black ; wing-coverts 

 edged with greyish-white ; upper tail-coverts white ; prima- 

 ries and tail-feathers black ; throat dark brown ; neck and 

 upper part of the breast rich chestnut red, ending with a col- 

 lar of white ; lower part of the breast black ; belly, vent, and 

 under tail-coverts white ; the flanks barred with dark brown ; 

 legs, toes, and their membranes, dark brown, almost black. 



The whole length twenty-one or twenty-two inches. From 

 the carpal joint to the end of the wing fourteen inches. 



M. Temminck states that the plumage of the young bird 

 differs considerably from that of the adult, but that he had not 

 been fortunate enough to obtain a specimen to describe from. 



