THE COMMON POCHARD* 315 



Adult female. Summer* — The body -feathers, tail, sometimes 

 some innermost secondaries are moulted Feb. to May, but not wings. 

 Coloration as winter but lower -mantle and scapulars dark mahogany- 

 brown, feathers tipped buff-brown, many feathers vermiculated 

 ashy-white at tip, mantle and scapulars much darker than in winter 

 plumage and much less vermiculated ; under -parts as in winter but 

 sides of body and flanks rich cinnamon-brown with buff-brown tips, 

 some feathers partly edged white or indistinctly vermiculated 

 greyish -white at tip. 



Nestling. — Down of crown, nape and upper-parts black-brown 

 with an olivaceous tinge ; bar across wing, irregular patch on side 

 of back below wing, and small patch on either side of rump greenish- 

 yellow ; eye -stripe and cheeks pale yellow or greenish -yellow ; 

 irregular brown streak, ill-defined in some, from below eye to nape ; 

 sides of body and usually sides of vent and back of thighs black- 

 brown tinged olivaceous ; remaining under -parts greenish-yellow 

 (in some tinged greyish), paler on vent and uropygial tuft. 



Juvenile. Male. — like adult winter female but distinguished 

 by less vermiculated upper -parts and characteristically mottled 

 appearance of under-parts. Head, neck and upper-mantle as in 

 adult female, but not such a rich cinnamon-brown ; cheeks and 

 sides of neck paler than in adult female ; white patch under eye 

 but no white streak behind eye ; nape and sides of neck apparently 

 never auburn as in some adult females ; scapulars sepia tipped 

 cinnamon-brown, intermixed with hair-brown or mouse-grey 

 feathers, more or less vermiculated greyish-white ; remaining upper- 

 parts as in adult winter female, but rump and upper tail -coverts 

 without white frecklings ; feathers of upper-breast with deep 

 mouse-grey bases, in some blackish-grey subterminal shadings, and 

 tipped white or buff ; sides of body and flanks deep mouse-grey 

 (flank-feathers with ill- denned vermiculations of light drab or white) 

 tipped bufl-brown or white ; rest of under-parts deep mouse-grey 

 or sooty-brown, feathers with narrow white or buff-brown tips, 

 which do not obscure grey bases as in adult winter female and thus 

 under-parts have a characteristically barred or mottled appearance : 

 tail as in male but with square abraded tips ; wing much as adult 

 female (sometimes with less freckling) and differing from adult male 

 in having secondaries if vermiculated at all, only towards tip, inner 

 ones (with dark line bordering outer web) with no vermiculations ; 

 innermost secondaries and coverts dark hair -brown more or less 

 freckled white ; rest of wing-coverts deep mouse-grey speckled 

 cream towards tip, not mouse -grey vermiculated white as in adult 

 male. Female. — As male, but mantle, scapulars and flanks 

 without vermiculations, feathers of mantle and scapulars tipped 

 buff-brown, mantle more or less freckled or dusted greyish or ash- 



* In the genus Nyroca the summer plumage of the adult female is duller 

 than that acquired in autumn and is possibly the eclipse plumage assumed 

 at an earlier date than in other ducks. 



