38 RED-HEADED DUCK. 
red-headed widgeon, pochard, or dun bird* of England, I 
have not been able to ascertain the point to my own satisfac- 
tion, though I think it very probably the same, the size, ex- 
tent, and general description of the pochard agreeing pretty 
nearly with this. 
The red-head is twenty inches in length, and two feet six 
inches in extent; bill, dark slate, sometimes black, two inches 
long, and seven-eighths of an inch thick at the base, furnished 
with a large broad nail at the extremity; irides, flame- 
coloured; plumage of the head, long, velvety, and inflated, 
running high above the base of the bill ; head, and about two 
inches of the neck, deep glossy reddish chestnut ; rest of the 
neck and upper part of the breast, black, spreading round to 
the back; belly, white, becoming dusky towards the vent by 
closely marked undulating lines of black ; back and scapulars, 
bluish white, rendered grey by numerous transverse waving 
lines of black ; lesser wing-coverts, brownish ash ; wing-quills, 
very pale slate, dusky at the tips; lower part of the back and 
sides under the wings, brownish black, crossed with regular 
zigzag lines of whitish; vent, rump, tail, and tail-coverts, 
black ; legs and feet, dark ash. 
The female has the upper part of the head dusky brown, 
rest of the head and part of the neck, a light sooty brown ; 
upper part of the breast, ashy brown, broadly skirted with 
whitish ; back, dark ash, with little or no appearance of white 
pencilling ; wings, bill, and feet nearly alike in both sexes. 
This duck is sometimes met with in the rivers of North 
and South Carolina, and also in those of Jersey and New 
York, but always in fresh water, and usually at no great 
distance from the sea; is most numerous in the waters of 
the Chesapeake ; and, with the connoisseurs in good eating, 
ranks next in excellence to the canvas-back. Its usual 
weight is about a pound and three-quarters avoirdupois. 
The red-head leaves the bay and its tributary streams in 
March, and is not seen till late in October. 
* Local names given to one and the same duck. It is also called the 
poker. 
