46 WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 
The male has a full soft bushy crest of a yellow-bufi 
colour, the rest of the head being of a beautiful pinkish 
chestnut ; the upper surface is plain light brown, with 
two white patches in front of the wings ; there is a wing- 
bar, white in front and pale grey behind, and the pinion- 
quills are white on the inner edge. The lower surface 
from the neck is black, as are the rump and shoulders ; 
the sides and wing-lining are white, washed with salmon- 
pink in birds in fullest plumage. 
The bill is pinky scarlet, the eyes red, and the feet 
orange-red with black webs. 
The female has less of a crest, and is hight brown 
above and dirty white below from chin to tail. The 
wings are coloured as in the male, but less purely. The 
legs are not so bright as in the male, the eyes brown 
and the bill black, reddish towards the tip. The young 
and the male in undress are like her, but the male retains 
his red bill. I once saw a female in the Calcutta bazaar 
with a white face like a female Scaup. 
The male is about twenty inches long, with an eleven- 
inch wing, and shank nearly two inches; bill rather 
over two. The female is smaller. 
The Red-crested Pochard breeds in Southern Europe 
and North Africa, near the Black and Caspian Seas, and 
in Persia and Eastern Turkestan. It lays about eight 
eggs of a greenish grey colour. Throughout Northern 
and Central India it is found in winter, but is rare in 
the Deccan and further South. It is found in Assam 
and Manipur, and is believed to occur in Ceylon and in 
Burma. 
It is a good swimmer and diver, has a strong flight, 
lighter than that of Pochards in general, and it also 
comes ashore more than other Pochards, walking better 
onlandthanthese. Itis often found in very large flocks 
on arrival at the beginning of the cold weather, but these 
afterwards break up into smaller parties. As an article 
