duck. 355 



113— NYROCA DUCK. 



Anas Nyroca, Inch Om. ii. 809. Gm. Lin. \. 542. N. C. Pelr. xiv. 403. 

 Olive- tufted Duck, Br. Misc. i. t. 21. 

 Tufted Duck, Gen. Syn. vi. 541. 79. Var. A. 



LENGTH sixteen inches and three quarters. Bill two inches, 

 black, toothed on the edges; irides whitish; head compressed, deep 

 glossy chestnut ; neck, breast, and sides, the same; lower part of 

 the neck behind, back, and rump, olive black ; belly and vent white, 

 sides of the last brown ; wings shorter than the tail ; some of the 

 quills edged, and others tipped with olive black ; from the seventh 

 to the twentieth white, except at the ends, which are black, forming, 

 when closed, a large patch, or speculum ; tail pointed, black brown ; 

 legs deep lead-colour, claws black. 



The female is smaller, dirty rust, where the male is chestnut ; 

 belly whitish, clouded ; vent paler brown ; back inclined to rufous ; 

 the rest as in the male. 



Inhabits Russia ; frequent about the River Don ; the male and 

 female always found together; lays from six to eight whitish eggs, 

 in a hollow, on the rising ground, in May : the female, while sitting, 

 drives oft' the male, lest he should break the eggs, which he is 

 sometimes known to do. The flesh is well tasted, as the bird chiefly 

 lives on vegetables. 



This is by many supposed to differ only in sex or age from the 

 Tufted Species,* but the tail feathers in the last named are rounded 

 at the ends, and in the Nyroca they run to a point. In India it is 

 called Chuta-chkrionat. The trachea of the male is not unlike that 

 of the Tufted Duck, swelling out in the middle, but contracting 

 into a much smaller diameter than in that bird-t 



* Lin. Trans. f See Montag. Sup. plate at the end, f. 1, 2. 



Z z 2 



