RED-CRESTED WHISTLING DUCK. 231 



ket at Rome.* The Zoological Society has received speci- 

 mens from North Africa, sent by Sir Thomas Reade, and it 

 was formerly noticed in Barbary, by Shaw, in his published 

 Travels in that country. It is found in Austria, Hungary, 

 and Turkey. Russian naturalists have observed that it is 

 very common in winter at Bakou, on the Caspian Sea. Ac- 

 cording to Dr. Latham, it inhabits the vast lakes of the desert 

 of Tartary ; is sometimes seen on the great lakes lying on 

 the east side of the mountains of the Uralian chain, but not 

 elsewhere in Siberia. Mr. Gould mentions, in his Birds of 

 Europe, that he has received specimens from the Himalaya, 

 and Colonel Sykes includes it among his Birds of the Duk- 

 hun, but states that it is rare in that part of India. 



Of the habits and nidification of this species little is known. 

 The effff has been described as of a uniform olive-brown, two 

 inches two lines in length, and one inch six lines in breadth. 

 The food is stated to be shell-fish and aquatic vegetables. 



In the adult male the beak is vermilion-red ; the nail 

 white ; the irides reddish-brown ; the whole of the head, and 

 the upper part of the neck all round rich reddish-chestnut, 

 the feathers on the top of the head considerably elongated, 

 forming a conspicuous crest ; the back of the neck below, 

 and the upper tail-coverts dark brown ; the back, and a por- 

 tion of the scapularies, wing-coverts, and tertials, yellowish- 

 brown ; a white patch on the carpal joint of the wing, and 

 another over the joint ; greater coverts ash-brown ; wing- 

 primaries and tail-feathers greyish-brown ; the secondaries 

 with the outer webs white, forming a speculum ; front of the 

 neck, breast, belly, and under tail-coverts rich dark brown ; 

 the sides and flanks white ; legs and toes vermilion-red, inter- 

 digital membrane almost black. 



The whole length twenty-two inches. From the carpal 

 joint to the end of the first quill-fcathcr, which is the longest 

 in the wing, ten inches and a half. 



* Willughby, Orn. p. 364. 



