ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 203 
AMERICAN POCHARD. 
(Nyroca americana. Fuligula americana. Aythya americana.) 
The Zoological Society of London secured five of these 
birds in exchange from North America, in the month of August, 
1902, for the first time in the history of the Gardens; the 
general characteristics of the bird being generally very similar 
to the ‘“Canvas-back” of the United States, like which it is 
common to the whole of North America. From thirty to forty 
pairs were imported between 1900 and 1904, selling at from 
44 to £6 the couple, but they turned out a very unprofitable 
speculation, it being almost impossible to acclimatise them. 
Male.—Fyes red; head and neck brownish-red, glossed 
above and behind with violaceous red, rest of neck and body 
behind the shoulders with lower part of back and tail-coverts 
black ; the bill as long as the head, broad and blue, the end 
black ; lower body white, sprinkled with grey and black; the 
sides, interscapulars, and scapulars finely lined with undulating 
black and white in nearly equal proportions, giving a general 
grey tint ; wing-coverts bluish-grey, finely sprinkled with whitish ; 
the speculum consisting of the ends of the secondaries hoary 
greyish-blue, lightest externally, and the innermost narrowly 
edged with black. 
Female.—Head, neck, and fore part of body brownish ; 
base of bill whitish ; eye yellow. 
Young.—Olive brown, indistinctly relieved by an olive 
yellow spot back of each wing and on each side of the rump ; 
head and neck yellowish, no dark marks on side of head. 
Egg.—“ Greyish-white, with a tinge of cream colour” 
(Baird). 
