NYEOCA. 461 



Length 16 ; tail 2-2; wing 7'25 ; tarsus 1-2 ; bill from gape 2. 

 Females a little less. 



Distribution. The Mediterranean area, Central and Eastern 

 Europe, and South-western Asia, breeding as far east as Kashmir, 

 where this species is a permanent resident. It is, however, only a 

 winter visitor, so far as is known, to the plains of India ; it is 

 common at that season throughout Northern India, as far east as 

 Bengal ; less abundant, but still far from rare, in Northern Burma, 

 Assam, Manipur, Central India, the Central Provinces, and the 

 Bombay Presidency ; of occasional occurrence only about Ratnagiri, 

 and not recorded from Southern India or Ceylon. 



Habits, $c. Generally in Northern India the White-eyed Duck 

 arrives about the end of October and leaves in March ; but some 

 birds are said to remain later in Sind, and may possibly breed 

 there. This Pochard is generally met with in scattered small 

 parties, or singly, dispersed over weedy and rushy pieces of water 

 of all sizes, and it rises, when disturbed, in twos or threes, not in 

 flocks. In places it is met with on the sea-coast. It is a splendid 

 diver, and a wounded bird is very difficult to capture. Practically 

 omnivorous, like most ducks, it appears to feed to a considerable 

 extent on insects and their larvae, Crustacea and mollusca, and its 

 flesh in India is of very inferior flavour. The call somewhat 

 resembles that of the Pochard. These ducks breed abundantly in 

 the Kashmir lakes in June, and lay 9 or 10 eggs in a nest of dry 

 rushes placed amongst thick reeds or water-plants, close to the 

 water. The eggs have a faint brownish tinge, and measure about 

 2-1 by 1-49. 



1607. Nyroea baeri. The Eastern White-eyed Duck. 



Anas (Fuligula) baeri. Radde, Reis. S.O. Sibir. ii. p. 376. pi. 15 



(1863). 



Nyroea baeri, Salvadori, Cat. B. M. xxvii, p. 344. 

 Fuligula baeri, F. Finn, P. A. S. B. 1896, p. 61 ; id. J. A. S. B. 



Ixvi, pt. 2, p. 525 ; Sclater, P. Z. S. 1896, p. 780. 



This Duck is a very near ally of N. ferruyinea, but is dis- 

 tinguished by both sexes having the head and neck black, glossed 

 with green in the male, but brownish and with very little gloss in 

 the female, in which sex also the lores are rufous-brown. The 

 basal portion of the primaries, too, in the present species is light 

 greyish brown, not white. In other respects the two species are 

 similar, there is the same white speculum on the secondaries, and the 

 same sharp division between the chestnut breast and white abdomen 

 in the male, whilst the two pass into each other in the female. 



Bill bluish, the base and nail black ; irides white or pale yellow ; 

 feet lead-grey (David}. 



Length 18 ; tail 2-4 ; wing 8'25 ; tarsus 1-3 ; bill from gape 2. 



Distribution. Eastern Siberia, China, and Japan. Although 

 specimens appear to have been obtained in Bengal by Duvaucel, 

 the occurrence of this Pochard in India had been completely 

 overlooked until Mr. Frank Finn, in February 1896, obtained 



