﻿NYROCA POCHARD. 149 



the breeding place about a week after the female begins 

 to sit, 



The eggs do not exceed five in number, and are 

 hatched in two or three and twenty days. The female 

 leads her brood on the water as soon as they are 

 dry, feeding them at first with insects and their 

 larvae. 



The entire length of the Nyroca Pochard is sixteen 

 inches and a half. 



The plumage of the adult male in the breeding-season is 

 as follows ; the head and neck are bright Venetian red : at 

 the base of the neck is a blackish-brown band, which divides 

 the above from the ferruginous bright chestnut of the upper 

 part of the breast ; the back and tertials are dusky brown, 

 glossed with green and purple, and finely speckled with 

 reddish brown ; the chin, just below the under mandible, is 

 white ; the wing-coverts are the same as the back, but paler ; 

 the speculum is pure white, below which is a black band, 

 caused by the tips of the feathers being bordered with that 

 colour and edged with greyish white ; the quills and tail- 

 feathers are dusky brown ; the belly and under tail-coverts 

 white ; the flanks dusky, with the feathers broadly edged with 

 pale brown ; the vent blackish grey, speckled with pale 

 yellow ; upper tail-coverts dusky, with a tinge of ferruginous ; 

 the eyes are white ; the beak, legs, and feet bluish ash ; the 

 nail on the beak and the webs of the feet dusky. 



The female has the head, neck, breast, and flanks brown, 

 the feathers being edged with reddish brown ; the ring round 

 the neck is very little marked ; the back dusky with paler 

 brown edges to the feathers, the rest as in the male ; the 

 belly spotted all over with pale brown and dusky ; the eyes 

 beak, and legs like those of the male. 



The male in summer-plumage resembles the female, with 



