54 WATER, FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 
The young birds are of a dirty light-brown, with wings 
and tail much asin the parents. The crownis blackish, 
and there is a rusty patch on the face asin the old 
female. The colour of the eyes isalready quite different 
in the sexes even in this plumage, so it must develop 
early. 
The length of the male of this species is about nine- 
teen inches ; the wing about eight inches; the shank 
about an inch and-a-half, and the bill two inches; the 
female is smaller than the male, especially as regards 
the bill. But females in this species appear to vary in 
size much more than males, and, as in the Tufted Poch- 
ard, some are much duller and less like the males than 
are others. 
This Pochard inhabits Eastern Siberia, China, and 
Japan normally, but appears to bea bird of somewhat 
erratic habits. Even in China it is not always to be 
found easily, and to India it is certainly, I think, a most 
irregular visitor, though it has probably often been 
passed over for the White-eye, to which bird the young 
certainly bear a very close resemblance, though the old 
birds are easily distinguishable. It was apparently 
obtained from Bengal in 1825, and Blyth certainly got 
one female in the Caleutta bazaar in 1842 or 1843, but 
did not identify it, which is not surprising, seeing that 
this Duck had not then been recognized as a distinct 
species. Then, at the end of February 1896, I got eleven 
full-plumaged birds there, and after that the species 
came for a time in greater or less numbers every winter, 
being very common in 1896-97 and less so in 1897-08. 
I got three males anda female in February 1899, and saw 
what was either a small dull female or a hybrid with the 
common White-eye about the middle of January. We 
had in the Indian Museum other birds in plumage inter- 
mediate between the two White-eyes, and I therefore 
think that they inter-breed. In the cold weather of 
18gq-1900, I did not see more than half-a-dozen speci- 
