560 



Adult Male (India). Crown and nape light brownish red, the feathers full and elongated, forming a con- 

 spicuous crest ; sides of the head, from the eye, throat, and upper part of the neck rusty red, washed 

 with rosy red, giving a peculiar and beautiful colour ; lower part of the neck, breast, centre of the 

 abdomen, and fore part of the back black, this colour running upwards towards the nape in a narrow 

 line; dorsal region, lower part of the back and scapulars greyish brown; on each side of the dorsal 

 region a large pure white patch ; rump blackish brown ; upper tail-coverts black ; tail dark ashy grey, 

 primaries dirty white, margined along the outer web, and on the inner web towards the tip, with dark 

 ashy grey, and broadly tipped with that colour ; secondaries white, with a broad bar of dark grey across 

 the tip ; inner secondaries elongated, dark ashy grey in colour ; upper wing-coverts ashy brown, under- 

 pays black, the sides of the abdomen pure white; bill bright vermilion-red, the tip white; irides 

 reddish brown; legs orange-red. Total length 21 inches, culmen 2"3, wing 108, tail 3 - 5, tarsus l - 6. 



Young Male (India). Kesembles the female, but has the crest much fuller and more rufous in colour, in 

 tinge much closer to that of the male, only duller. 



Adult Female (Inkerman, March 20th) . Crown, nape, back of the neck and upper parts generally dark 

 reddish brown, or dark hair-brown, with a rufous tinge, darkest on the rump and crown, the feathers 

 on the back and scapulars being rather lighter towards the tips ; quills dull brown, darker towards the 

 tip, and margined along the outer web with dark brown, the apical portion being, however, dull greyish 

 brown; secondaries greyish white, barred with brown towards the tip, inner secondaries brownish; 

 tail brownish grey, margined and tipped with dull white; throat and upper part of the neck white; 

 underparts generally dirty brownish white ; eyes hazel ; beak blackish, with a pink tip, a portion of the 

 lower mandible being yellowish pink ; legs and feet pinkish, webs blackish. 



Young in down (fide Baldamus, Cab. Journ. 1870, p. 280). Differs from every other Duck in this plumage 

 that I know in having a double olive-grey stripe from the lores, dividing before the eye, and bordering 

 the yellowish grey eyebrow above and the cheeks and auriculars below ; upper parts, crown from the 

 base of the bill, nape, back, and wings dull olive-grey, excepting the spot on the shoulder, which, with 

 the rest of the body, is pale yellowish grey ; iris dark brown ; bill reddish brown, with the nail white ; 

 feet ash-grey, with a greenish tinge, webs and toes narrowly edged with yellowish white. 



This beautiful Duck inhabits Southern and Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, and India, occa- 

 sionally straggling into the northern part of Central Europe. 



With us in Great Britain it is extremely rare. Mr. Harting, in his ' Handbook of British 

 Birds,' enumerates sixteen instances of its occurrence between 1818 and 1869, all of which, with 

 one exception, appear to have taken place in the winter season. The first of these refers to a 

 specimen obtained in Breydon Harbour, Norfolk, in July 1818, as recorded by Hunt. Mr. Henry 

 Stevenson, writing to me respecting the occurrence of this species in Norfolk, gives the following 

 particulars respecting this and other specimens obtained in that county : — " Yarrell claims credit 

 for first noticing this species in England, as killed near Boston in January 1826 ; but I claim the 

 species first for Norfolk, as Hunt, in his ' British Ornithology,' vol. ii. p. 333, figured a female, 

 of which, after citing it as the first recorded as killed in this country, he says ' the specimen 

 from whence our drawing was made was killed on Breydon in the month of July 1818, and is 

 now hi the possession of Mr. Youell, of Yarmouth, to whose kindness we are greatly indebted. 

 We are informed that a specimen of the male was killed in Norfolk a few years since, and was 



