64 POCHARD. 
with black; the yellow colour giving place to the grey, and 
the part becoming darker as the bird attains maturity; the 
feathers about the vent are in the immature birds white at 
the sides, and freckled with dark grey in the centre, the 
youngest bird also exhibiting in this part a good deal of 
yellowish brown; in the adult entirely of dark grey; the 
legs and toes, dark bluish grey; the webs and claws, black. . © 
The total length of Mr. Bartlett’s bird was seventeen inches 
and a half. 
This species may be distinguished from ‘Fuligula ferina’ 
externally, by its smaller size; the much smaller space occupied 
by the black colour at the base of the bill; the yellowish 
colour of the irides; the greater extent of the dark colour 
on the breast, which reaches further both upwards and 
downwards, than in the common species, and is, I think, at 
no age in such strong contrast with the colour of the neck 
and head, and by the purple tint and finer texture of the 
neck and breast feathers, by the white bar on, the wing, 
and by the much darker tint of the freckled parts. 
Internally, the eye, when removed from the head, was, in 
Mr. Gurney’s bird, found to be considerably larger than that 
of ‘Fuligula ferina.’ 
Mr. Fisher, however, has recently, in a letter to me, ex- 
pressed his doubt whether the bird is not a variety between 
two species, and such I think it to be. I have endeavoured 
to give a concise and clear view of the different accounts 
and opinions, which, at first sight, must seem to a casual 
reader to be somewhat confused. It appears’ oh the whole 
to be concluded that the supposed new species must be 
assigned to the ‘Index Expurgatorius.’ 
