STELLER'S WESTERN DUCK. 1 73 



tint, and on the back the dark centres of the feathers 

 are more elongated, while below, the bars also take a 

 more lengthened form, and are narrower ; on the 

 head and neck the yellowish-brown colour pre- 

 vails ; the wings are darker, and the greater covers 

 are narrowly tipped with white, while the tertials 

 continue their curved form, and are nearly as much 

 so as in the male Eider. 



STELLER'S WESTERN DUCK. SOMATERIA STEL- 

 LERII. Fuligula dispar, Selby. Polystlcta, Eyt. 

 Enkonnetta^ G. R. Gray. Stelleria^ Bonap. Ma- 

 cropus, Nutt. Western Duck, or Pochard of Bri- 

 tish authors. This rare and interesting species 

 has been placed in various genera, new appella- 

 tions have been proposed by different ornitholo- 

 gists for its reception, and it is now placed at the 

 conclusion of the Eiders provisionally, until its struc- 

 ture is better ascertained; the general colouring 

 and form of the tertials show a considerable alliance. 

 Only one specimen of this bird has been killed on 

 the British coasts, in the vicinity of Yarmouth in 

 Norfolk, and is now in the Norwich museum. In 

 Europe it is nearly equally rare ; a specimen killed 

 in Denmark, nearly at the same time that the Nor- 

 folk bird was procured, was at the period Mr. Selby 

 wrote his History of British Birds considered the 

 only one on record ; since, it has been occasionally 

 killed in Northern Europe, and Temminck, in his 

 Supplement, states that it occasionally wanders into 

 Germany. It also ranges to North-eastern Asia, 



