196 NYROCA NYROCA 



Adult Female: Resembles the male but the head color is browner and the upper breast is not such a 

 brilliant chestnut. The white of the abdomen is less clearly defined from the breast color and is tinged 

 with brown. The feathers of the mantle and scapulars, like those of the flanks, have pale-brown edges. 



Iris red-brown, becoming lighter with age, and sometimes reaching nearly to white (Millais). Bill 

 blackish lead-color. Legs and feet bluish black, like the male's. 



Wing 176-185 mm.; bill 36-40. 



Weight 1 pound, 3 ounces to 1 pound, 6 ounces (Hume) (0.46 to 0.62 kilograms). 



This sex is easily distinguished from the female of the Pochard by the presence of white wing-bars. 

 The female Tufted Duck is easily confused with the present species and the diagnostic marks are 

 rather fine ones. The Tufted is darker on the back and whole upper side, and the under tail-coverts 

 are not so prominently white. 



Young est Feist (Juvenal) Plumage: A plain brown duck. The head has very little tinge of chest- 

 nut and the mantle and scapulars are uniform dark brown like the top of the head. The upper breast 

 is dark rusty brown, more or less barred with black, and the remainder of the lower parts is silvery 

 brown, darker on the sides and flanks. The irides are brownish gray, which in the male changes to 

 pearl gray by spring. The males and females are much alike at first. The former are larger and are 

 said to have the flanks richer colored. The heads and necks are also darker while the iris is lighter. 

 In this first plumage the White-eyed Duck may be confused on casual observation with the young of 

 the Tufted Duck, but the bill of the present species is narrower and less "dished" on the culmen. 

 The general body coloring may be very similar. 



Male in Eclipse Plumage: The change, according to Millais, is somewhat like that which is seen in 

 the Tufted Duck. His description is based upon captive specimens which, however, cannot always be 

 compared to wild ones. The most noticeable change was in the head which became a dull, pale red- 

 brown, while the lower neck, which is almost black in the full plumage, became edged with white or 

 sandy brown. The eye lost much of its brightness, but did not change color. The greater part of the 

 plumage seemed to him to be renewed only once. This, however, cannot be. Annie Jackson (in 

 Witherby et ah, 1919-22) says that in this plumage the male is similar to the female, but the upper 

 mantle becomes a lighter brown and the sides of the face, the neck, chin and throat are paler. There 

 is a complete body moult in summer followed by wings and tail from end of May to August. 



Young in Down (specimen in Museum of Comparative Zoology) : Top of head down to a little above 

 the eye, back of neck and whole upper side except wing- and scapular-patches almost black, with the 

 longest feathers golden yellow. The whole side of head and supra-orbital region buffy yellow, lighter 

 on the chin and throat. No face markings. Breast and upper abdomen sulphur yellow. Lower abdo- 

 men and flanks dark like the upper side. 



Compared to the young of other nearly related diving ducks, this species is very different. It is 

 easily distinguished from the black-faced downy young of the Tufted Duck and is very much lighter 

 colored than the young of the Greater Scaup. It is perhaps nearer to the young of the Lesser Scaup. 

 From this last it can easily be separated by the more brilliant yellow of the breast as well as by the 

 light face color extending to well above the eye. 



DISTRIBUTION 



The White-eyed Pochard is essentially a bird of southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, and is 

 peculiar in that it is found wintering in almost all localities where it breeds. It is not, therefore, so 

 decidedly a migratory species as other common European ducks. 



