230 BAY, SEA OR DIVING DUCKS 



BAY, SEA OR DIVING DUCKS 



Subfamily Nyrocinae 



Redhead 



Nyroca amerioana 

 (ni-ro-ka, a-mer-i-kan-a) 



Colour Plates Nos. 16 and 17. Downy Young No. 34. 



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Nyroca, Latinized form of the Russian word Nirok or Nyrok, meaning a diving 

 duck, originated by Fleming in 1822; americana, Latinized* form, meaning of 

 America. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



IN LOCAL USE: Canard mulct (mule duck); canard tete rouge (red-headed duck); 

 canard violon (fiddle duck); fiddler duck; red-headed broadbill; red-headed raft- 

 duck; redneck; violon (violin, fiddle). 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULT MALE. WINTER PLUMAGE: Head (fig. 45) and upper neck, rich reddish 

 chestnut, with purplish iridescence; lower neck, blackish; head, high-domed and 

 puffy; bill, pale bluish, with whitish ring bordering the black tip, shorter than 

 head, about one-half as wide as it is long; eye, orange yellow to lemon yellow. 

 Body. Chest and foreback, blackish; lower chest, with some feathers edged with 

 ashy; back, scapulors and sides, finely vermiculated with dusky-and-white, producing 

 dark grey effect; rump, blackish; breast, white; belly, whitish, finely marked with 

 dusky. (General effect of body, darker than that of body of Canvas -back). Feet, 

 bluish grey, with dusky webs. Tail, blackish, paler terminally; upper and under 

 coverts, brownish black. Wings. All coverts, grey, slightly flecked with whitish; 

 primaries, brownish grey, darker near tips and on outer webs; secondaries, with 

 pearl-grey speculum, slightly darker near white rear border; outer webs of inner 

 secondaries edged with black; tertials, grey; lining, whitish and grey; axillars, pure 

 white. 



ECLIPSE PLUMAGE: The eclipse is partial only. The moult starts in late June; 

 the full-plumage wing is replaced in the latter part of that month. In this plumage 

 head and neck become browner breast mottled, and brown feathers appear on 

 back and rump. 



AUTUMN PLUMAGE: From the partial eclipse plumage, described above, adult 

 males in early autumn commence to moult into the winter plumage. The wing is 

 as in winter plumage. The full reddish colour of head and upper neck is regained 

 fairly quickly, and on lower neck, chest, and upper back, black feathers begin to 

 outnumber brown ones of the eclipse; new, vermiculated winter-feathers may be 

 seen coming in on back, scapulars, and sides. By November, in most cases, full winter 

 plumage has been attained. In more backward individuals some brownish feathers 

 remain on back and scapulars; whitish tips persist on chest-feathers, and some buffy- 

 brown eclipse feathers remain on flanks. 



ADULT FEMALE. Head and neck, yellowish brown, darker on crown; area 

 at base of bill, paler; chin, whitish; faint palish streak behind eye, and pale ring 



