TUFTED POCHARD. NATATORES. FULIGULA. 359 



tube is of considerable and equal diameter throughout its ' 

 length ; in which respect it differs from both of them. The 

 food of the present species consists of water insects, vermes, Food* 

 and mollusca, obtained by diving ; and MONTAGU mentions 

 having found the craws of some specimens filled with the 

 Helix pntris in the month of December, at which period 

 these and other testaceous animals have retreated to their 

 hybernacula beneath the mud, in the deeper parts of the wa- 

 ter. These birds begin to leave us early in March, and by 

 the middle of April the whole have departed for more north- 

 ern latitudes. According to Dr FLEMING, they only appear 

 in the Orkney and Shetland Islands after stormy weather; 

 their proper line of migration seeming to be more to the 

 eastward. 



PLATE 65. represents the Adult Male of the natural size. 



Head and upper part of the neck black, glossed with rich General 

 purple. Crest the same, composed of long silky nar- t j on> 

 row decumbent feathers. Lower part of the neck and Male, 

 breast black. Belly, abdomen, sides, and flanks pure 

 white. Mantle and scapulars brownish-black, with very 

 minute specks of reddish- white. Tertials glossy green- 

 ish-black. Secondaries white, tipped with greenish- *'*' 

 black, forming a bar or speculum across the wings 

 when closed. Quills pale hair-brown, with the outer 

 webs and tips black. Lower part of the back, under tail- 

 coverts, and tail, black. Bill, from the angle of the fore- 

 head to the tip, one inch and a-half in length ; breadth 

 seven -eighths of an inch ; deep bluish-grey, with a 

 small part of the tip and the nail black. Legs and toes 

 greyish-black, with the membranes still darker. 

 Head and neck deep umber-brown ; with a crest of the Female, 

 same colour, about an inch long. Breast and flanks va- 

 ried with umber-brown and. yellowish-brown. Belly 

 and abdomen white, with faint undulations of pale 

 brown. Vent and under tail-coverts barred with white 

 and pale umber brown. Upper parts of the body 



