THE NUKHTA OR COMB DUCK. 99 
A FINE adult male measured :— 
Length, 31°5 ; expanse, 55; wing, 15°37; tail from vent, 6°5 ; 
tarsus, 2°87 ; bill from gape, 2°8 ; weight, 5 Ibs. 12 ozs. 
A female, apparently nearly adult, measured :— 
Length, 26°4; expanse, 46; wing, 11°3; tail from vent, 40; 
tarsus, 2°2; bill from gape, 2°21 ; weight, barely 3 ibs. 
mires males: of, ther years shot) on the 24th. December 
measured :— 
encth,, 26°55. tO 200.5 expanse, 51°75 to 53:5; wins, 13°37 
tor 14-5 > tail from vent, 5:25 fo Oo; tarsus, 2°62 to: 2°75 5 bill 
from gape, 2°5 to 2°75; weight, 4 Ibs. 4 ozs. to 5 tbs. 2 ozs. 
In the adult male, the irides were a moderately dark brown ; 
bill and comb black, paler on the lower mandible, and fleshy 
towards the base of this latter. 
In the young males the irides were dark brown; the legs and 
feet delicate pale plumbeous; the upper mandible black; the 
nail bluish towards the tip ; the lower mandible pinkish, and its 
nail a somewhat pinkish white. 
THE PLATE is extremely good, except that it does not suffi- 
ciently bring out the metallic colours on the back of the male 
(the specimen figured was not, I fear, quite in full plumage), and 
that it hardly sufficiently exhibits the difference in the size of 
the sexes. 
Most unfortunately the female is actually made to float higher 
in the water in proportion to her size, whereas of course from 
anatomical causes she floats much deeper, is not in fact so 
buoyant; the under tail-coverts are correctly shown to be 
pure white. This, so far as I can remember, has been the colour 
of these feathers in every specimen I have examined, and this 
is their colour in every specimen in our museum, but Dr. 
Selater geures them, (Pi Z.5,1870, p. 6, LXVII.) as - bright 
gamboge yellow, and this from living specimens in the Zoo ! 
In the cold season the comb of the male (the females of this 
species never have any comb) shrinks up almost to nothing, 
while in the height of the breeding season it is from 2°3 to 
nearly 2°5 in length at the base, and almost as high. 
The young are dull earthy brown above, and dirty white 
below. 
THE GENUS Sarcidiornis is, as Sclater grandiosely designates 
it, a “truly tropicopolitan one.’(!) 
Besides the present species, a nearly allied form, S. caruncu- 
Jatus, is found in tropical America, and there is a third species 
(S. africanus) also closely allied to our bird, the distinctness 
of which some ornithologists seem to doubt; ow vid. 
