200 ANATID^. 



daries leaden or bluish grey, tinged with brown, and slightly tipped with dull 

 white ; tail dark brownish ash. 



The female has the head, neck and nape chestnut or reddish brown; the 

 breast of deeper chestnut ; the wing coverts ashy; upper parts as in the male, 

 but the lines less distinct ; throat and forepart of the neck reddish white ; 

 abdomen ashy or greyish white ; bill dark plumbeous; irides orange yellow ; 

 legs and feet slaty grey or plumbeous. 



Letigth. — iS'o to l8*5 inches ; wing 8'o to 8-5 ; tail 2-35 to 3-0 ; bill 2'i5 

 to 2-25. 



Hab. — Sind, Beloochistan, Persia, Afghanistan, Punjab, N.-W. and Cen- 

 tral Provinces, Oudh, Rajputana, Kutch, Guzerat, Kattiawar, Central India, 

 Nothein parts of Southern India, and the Deccan. In the Concan it occurs 

 but only as a straggler; it is not recorded from Ceylon, nor from Nepaul. 



The Pochard makes it appearance in Sind about the end of October, and 

 in the Punjab during November. It is usually found in large flocks, affecting 

 the sea as well as inland creeks and fresh waters ; its chief food is molluscs, 

 seeds, flower buds of aquatic plants and algas also when on the sea, probably 

 such algae as are detached and found drifting in fresh waters. The Pochards 

 affect deep weedy jheels, keeping well under cover during the day, and 

 feeding chiefly by night ; they fly with greater rapidity than the IMallards, and 

 unless their haunts have not been shot over, they are very wary and difficult to 

 approach. 



239. Puligula nyroca {Gould), Bodd. Tab. P. E. lOOO; Gould, 

 B. Eur. pi. 367; Naum. Vogt. t. 309; Jetd., B. Iiid. iii. p. 813; Murray, 

 HdUi.y Zool. ^'C, Sind, p. 239; id., Vert.ZooJ., S//id,p. 307 ; Hume, Game 

 Birds Ind. iii. p. 293; Murray, Avif. Brit. Ind. ii. p. 701, No. 1403. 

 {Bur7ioo, Sind ; Karcheeya, Punjab.) — The White-eyed Pochard or Ferru- 

 ginous Duck. 



Forehead, crown, nape, sides of the face, throat and upper neck all round 

 deep ferruginous; breast and sides of the breast the same; chin with atrian- 

 o-ular patch of white ; a black collar on the lower part of the neck, which 

 behind runs into the purplish glossed dark brown of the back ; scapulars and 

 tertials dark brown, also the rump and upper tail coverts ; abdomen pure 

 white; flanks ferruginous; lower abdomen and vent ferruginous brown, with 

 white specklings ; lower tail coverts white ; tail dusky brown ; lesser, median 

 and greater wing coverts dusky brown ; secondaries white, broadly tipped with 

 dark brown ; end of the wing white, also the bases of the inner primaries and 

 their inner webs ; outer webs dusky blackish brown ; axillaries white ; bill 

 bluish ; irides white. 



Length.— \y^ to l6-0 inches; wing 75 to 775 ; tail 2-0; bill at front 1-9 



to 2"0. 



