Vol. xxxviui. | a2 
Mr. P. F. Bunyarp exhibited a clutch of nine eggs with 
down and feathers of the White-eyed Pochard, Nyroca 
nyroca, from Velencze Lake, Hungary, taken on May 30th, 
1899, by the late Capt. F. C. Selous, and made the following 
remarks :— 
Comparatively few authenticated eggs of this occasional 
visitor appear to have reached this country, certainly very 
few with down and feathers, consequently little is known of 
the latter—in fact, I have been unable to find any accurate 
description of them. Howard Saunders (Manual, p. 466), in 
describing a nest taken in Spain by Lord Lilford, says that the 
down is brownish white and feathers white; this is an obvious 
error, and in quoting Mr. W. E. Clark the down is described 
as brownish black. Mention is also made of the eggs being 
whitish, but I have not met with eggs of this colour, and 
have never found them tinged with green as mentioned by 
some writers, but this may possibly occur. 
Description :—Eggs pale buff, in shade like one form of 
the eggs of the Red-breasted Merganser, Mergus serrator. 
Out of 82 species of Duck on the British list, 20 have cream- 
to buff-coloured eggs, and 12 olive-green to blue ; those of 
the White-eyed Pochard and Red-breasted Merganser show 
the warmest shade of buff. 
Feathers :—Type, chocolate-brown, pale brownish at base, 
with sharply defined white tips; the darker portion is dis- 
tinctly mottled with pale brown. They are very distinctive 
and cannot be confused with the feathers of any other 
members of the genus Nyroca or, in fact, any other British 
Duck. They resemble somewhat those of the Harlequin 
Duck, Histrionicus histrionicus ; the tips, however, of these 
are not white, and they are aly much larger. 
Size :—About the same as those of the Tufted Duck. 
Measurements 24 mm. to 29 mm. 
Down :— Black-brown to chocolate-brown, shows no 
conspicuous white centre, 7. e., has no white immediately 
round the quill (this is characteristic of the down of the 
genus), similar to that of the Tufted Duck im colour and 
size. 
