280 ANATID.E. 



body pure white ; the sides under the wing and the flanks 

 barred with narrow ash-grey lines ; legs, toes, and their mem- 

 branes bluish and lead-grey. The whole length seventeen 

 inches and a half; the wing, from the carpal joint to the end 

 of the longest quill-feather, seven inches and three-quarters. 



An adult male, belonging to the Ornithological Society of 

 London, which has lived more than two years on the canal 

 in St. James's Park, assumes the colours of the plumage of 

 the adult female before the middle of June, remaining in that 

 state during the summer, re-assuming his white plumage at 

 the regular autumn moult. This bird associates constantly 

 with a female Golden Eye, but not with any other species. 



Adult females have the bill and the irides of the same 

 colours as those of the males, with a black patch at the base 

 of the upper mandible ; all the top of the head reddish- 

 brown ; down the back of the neck a streak of ash-grey, 

 which extends to form a collar at the bottom, and spreads 

 thence over the space before the wings and on the upper part 

 of the back ; centre of the back, the rump, upper tail-coverts, 

 and tail-feathers greyish-black ; point of the wing ash-grey ; 

 smaller wing-coverts pure white ; greater coverts and secon- 

 daries black, tipped with white as in the male, but the two 

 white bands are narrower than those of the male ; primaries 

 nearly black ; tertials lead-grey ; chin, throat, and all the 

 under surface of the body pure white ; legs, toes, and their 

 membranes lead-grey. Females are considerably smaller than 

 males, measuring but fourteen inches and a half in their whole 

 length, and but six inches and a half from the point of the 

 wing to the end of the longest quill-feather. 



Young males resemble females for the first twelvemonths, 

 and do not assume their white plumage till their second 

 autumn moult. Young females have no black patch on the 

 side of the head during their fu'st winter ; the red colour on 

 the back of the neck covers a larger space ; the white colour 



