The Ferruginous, or White-Eyed Duck. ^47 



Captain W. W. Cordeaux (21st Lancers) writes, fin liUj, tHs "little Duck is 

 the first to tell the jaded sportsman, who has been panting through the long hot 

 season, that it is time to write and order cartridges, appearing as it does about 

 the middle of October, before the great rush of wild-fowl takes place. It is also 

 one of the latest to go, often remaining as long as the last week in April or first 

 in May. 



Its favourite haunts are pools of water, and the large weed- encumbered 

 marshes and tracts of flooded land, found everjrwhere in India. As far as I have 

 noticed this Duck is a bottom-feeder, constantly diving for weeds in the shallow 

 water. Many remain to brieed amongst the rushes which fringe the Wular Lake, 

 in Kashmir, though the bulk go further north ; some breed, I have been told, on 

 the shores of theTso Morari. I have noticed this Duck coming in small flocks 

 as early as the first week in September, down the valley of the Suru river." Dr- 

 O. Finsch observed it with the downy young on the, river near Obdorsk, the most 

 northerly station in Tobolsk, at the end of August. In the tvinter it occurs in 

 some numbers in Northern China, also visiting Japan. 



The White-eyed Duck has not unfrequently been exposed for sale in Leaden- 

 hall market. In 1871, in March, an adult male was shot from a small flock on 

 the east coast of Ireland. In 1879 Sir R. Payne-Gallwey shot two in immature 

 plumage also on the east coast of Ireland ; and on October 9th, in 1895, an 

 immature male was shot at Yarmouth, this being, as far as I am aware, the last 

 occurrence on record in England. 



The nest has been described to me as made in dense reed beds on the sides 

 of lakes and rivers, it is rather a bulky structure, not unlike a Coot's, of fragments 

 of reeds and rushes ; the eggs, eight to ten in number, are buried in a mass of 

 dark down ; they are creamy-bufi" with a greenish tinge. 



The adult male has the whole of the head, neck, and fore-part of breast and 

 sides a rich deep reddish-brown or ferruginous ; encircling the middle of the neck 

 a more or less distinct brown ring ; a white spot on chin ; speculum white, and 

 very conspicuous, bordered with black ; breast and under tail-coverts white ; 

 abdomen dusky ; upper parts brownish, with a green gloss and a great many 

 minute specks ; irides white, (hence the name) ; bill and feet bluish-black. 



The female is a very obscurely coloured bird, the prevailing colour shades of 

 brown ; there is no ring on the neck ; wings as in the male ; irides less conspic- 

 uously white, also the under parts. I have no knowledge of transition plumage. 

 The note is said to represent the words kirr, kere, kirr, harshly given, and has a 

 certain resemblance to that of the Pochard and Tufted Duck." 



