282 THE TUFTED POCHARD. 
average about 2°3 by 1°65 inch;” and these are precisely the 
dimensions of the egg taken by Wolley and figured by 
Mr. Hewitson in the 3rd edition of his well-known work. 
OF THIS species likewise my old paper of measurements has 
been mislaid, and I have only particulars of seven birds. I 
fear, therefore, that the subjoined will only imperfectly represent 
the limits within which the species really varies. 
Males—Length, 16°6 to 17'2; expanse, 27°5 to 20°3 ; wing, 
78 to 85; tail from vent, 2°5 to 3:25 ; tarsus, 1:3 to 14am 
from gape, 1°85 to 2:0; weight, 1 lb. 8 ozs, to 2 Ibs. 4 oz. 
Females—Length, 15°2 to 16°75; expanse, 267 to 287; 
wing, 7°6 to 80; tail from vent, 2°6 to 3’0 ; tarsus, 1°2 to 14; 
bill from gape, 1°81 to 2:0; weight 1 lb. 5 ozs. to 1lb. 12 ozs. 
In adults the bills vary from dull leaden to light greyish blue, 
the nail and extreme tip being black ; theirides golden yellow; 
the legs and feet vary like the bill, and there is often an olivace- 
ous tinge, especially on the tarsi ; the joints have usually a dusky 
tinge; the webs vary from dusky to almost black and the 
claws from deep brown to black. As a rule, the colours of 
the bill, legs and feet are rather duller and duskier in the 
female than the male. 7 
In young birds also these parts are duskier, and the irides 
are brown, brownish white, to almost white and brownish 
yellow. 
THE PLATE, so far as the male is concerned, is very good, but 
the green on the tertiaries is a little too bright. Moreover 
in a really old fully-plumaged male, there is none of that 
brown speckling at the base of the throat shown in the plate; 
the back is a shade blacker, and the crest much longer. I have 
a male before me in which it is exactly two and a half inches 
long. 
The female is much too light and rufous a brown ; she should 
be a darker brown, (though rufous brown is at times mingled with 
this) on the breast and interscapulary region ; a much darker 
brown on the mantle, and a very much darker brown, almost a 
blackish brown, on the head. No doubt immature birds are 
lighter coloured, but I have never yet met with one in India 
altogether so light and rufescent as the plate. 
There is some difficulty in discriminating the young and 
females of the White-eye, Scaup and Tufted Pochard. 
In the old females, the White-eye has the chin white and 
the irides white, while those of the other two species have no 
white chin and yellow irides. The Scaupagain has no crest 
and a broad white band margining the upper mandible, while 
the Tufted Pochard has no white on the face, and a distinct, 
though short, crest of narrow recurved feathers. 
