SPECIES 19. ANAS FERINE 



RED-HEADED DUCK. 



[Plate LXX. Fig. 6, Male.] 



PE ALE'S Museum y JVo. 2710.* 



THIS is a common associate of the Canvas-back, frequenting 

 the same places, and feeding on the stems of the same grass, 

 the latter eating only the roots; its flesh is very little inferior, 

 and it is often sold in our markets for the Canvas-back, to those 

 unacquainted with the characteristic marks of each. Anxious 

 as I am to determine precisely whether this species be the Red- 

 headed Wigeon, Pochard, or Dunf bird of England, I have not 

 been able to ascertain the point to my own satisfaction; though 

 I think it very probably the same, the size, extent, and gene- 

 ral description of the Pochard agreeing pretty nearly with this. 



The Red-head is twenty inches in length, and two feet six 

 inches in extent; bill dark slate, sometimes black, two inches 

 long, and seven-eights of an inch thick at the base, furnished 

 with a large broad nail at the extremity; irides flame-coloured; 

 plumage of the head long, velvetty, and inflated, running high 

 above the base of the bill; head, and about two inches of the 

 neck deep glossy reddish chestnut; rest of the neck and upper 



* wflnas Ferina, GMEI,. i, p. 530, No. 31. Anas rufa, Id. p. 515. Ind. Om. 

 p. 862, No. 77; p. 863, No. 78. Rufous necked-Duck, Gen. Syn. in, p. 477, 

 No. 32. Pochard, Id. p. 523, No. 68. Red-headed Duck, LAWSON'S Carolina, 



p. 150. BEWICK, 11, p. 320 Jlrct. Zool. No. 491. Br. Zool. No. 284. Le 



Millouin, Bmss. vi, p. 384, JVb. 19, pL 35.^. 1; Le Millouin WOTS, Id. p. 389, 

 A. young male?; Le Millouin du Mexique, Id. p. 390, No. 20, female, Burr, 

 ix, p. 216. PI. Enl. 803. TEMM. Man. d'Orn. p. 669. WILLOUGHBY, p. 367, 

 xi. MONTAGU, Orn. Diet. PEALE'S Museum, No. 2711, female. 



f Local names given to one and the same Duck. It is also called the 

 Poker. 



