THE WHITE-FACED STIFF-TAIL DUCK. 291 
small portion of the rump, and the tail above water. They 
are most expert divers, keeping several minutes under water. 
They keep in pairs or small parties, rarely associating with any 
other species of fowl. Their call is a grating, quacking note, 
much like that of the Pochards. 
_ They are said to feed upon water insects, small fishes, and 
shells, as well as vegetable matter; but I suspect that this is 
rather conjectural. 
THE NEST, composed of dry grass, rushes and the like, is 
built in amongst reeds and sedges, in lakes, marshes or slug- 
gish rivers; and in it the female, towards the end of May, lays 
from seven to ten eggs, which are said to be a dull white in 
colour, large for the size of the bird, and characterized by 
the peculiarly rough and coarse texture of their shells. 
THE FOLLOWING was Colonel St. John’s note on the two 
young birds, male and female, which he shot :— 
Piienerh, 105 > wine, 612; pill; lenoth’ at” front, “20> 
breadth, oo. 
Irides brown ; bill and legs (which were very large and stout) 
dark plumbeous ; tail cuneate, of 18 long, rigid feathers. 
. “Colour above hair brown, minutely speckled fulvous ; 
below bright orange fulvous; the bases of the feathers dark 
ash; head dark brown; white stripe from base of upper 
mandible to nape; below the eye a dark stripe separating 
the white stripe from the pure white chin and throat ; male and 
female precisely similar.” 
These birds are immature, and I may further quote Dresser’s 
detailed description of the adults and young :— 
“ Adult Male (Zah, Transylvania, 16th May )—Crown black ; 
forehead, sides of the head, including the space above the eye, 
chin, and nape pure white ; below this white the neck is black, 
with a few buffy brown dots on the forepart; lower neck to 
the forepart of the back, except in the centre, chestnut-red ; 
this colour extending to the foreneck and upper breast, where 
it is delicately marked with buffy white; back and scapulars 
ochreous. or reddish buff; rump darker, brownish, all finely 
vermiculated with blackish ; lower rump and upper tail-coverts 
chestnut-red ; quills greyish black, the secondaries externally 
and the larger wing-coverts greyish buff, vermiculated with 
blackish grey ; lesser coverts dull ashy, but slightly vermicu- 
lated ; tail long and stiff and blackish in colour ; underparts 
below the breast buffy white, obscurely marked with reddish 
brown ; flanks dull chestnut brown, tinged with warm buff, 
and vermiculated with darker brown; bill much swollen at the 
base, pale ultramarine-blue in colour; iris dark brown; legs 
dull blackish plumbeous. Total length about 17:5 inches ; 
culmen, 1°9; gape, 1°82 ; wing, 6°3; tail, 4°3 ; tarsus, 1°35, 
