322 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



upper-breast brown-black, feathers narrowly (those bordering lower - 

 breast broadly) fringed white ; sides of body and flanks pale drab, 

 some feathers vermiculated greyish-white and intermixed with 

 white feathers vermiculated drab ; lower -belly and vent white, 

 feathers more or less vermiculated dusky and intermixed with drab 

 feathers more or less vermiculated whitish ; under tail -coverts 

 brown-black, some white vermiculated dusky ; tail and wing as in 

 winter. Crest is apparently only shed once and is renewed during 

 post eclipse moult. 



Adult female. Winter. — Crown and crest black-brown (some- 

 times almost black), feathers edged cinnamon-brown ; nape and 

 upper-mantle sepia, feathers tipped cinnamon-brown ; mantle and 

 scapulars black-brown glossed dull green, feathers usually edged 

 cinnamon-brown, lower-mantle and scapulars sparsely dusted 

 white ; back, rump and upper tail-coverts black glossed dull green 

 (in some upper tail-coverts black-brown) ; cheeks, sides of neck, 

 chin, throat and fore -neck warm sepia, many feathers with black 

 tips and with ill-concealed brownish bases, in some (old females ?) 

 these parts almost black with purple gloss ; feathers round base of 

 upper mandible usually more or less white especially on lores, tiny 

 white spot on chin in some ; lower-neck and upper-breast sepia or 

 black-brown, feathers broadly fringed yellowish -white or white, 

 those bordering fore -neck often edged cinnamon- brown ; sides of 

 body and flanks drab, feathers fringed yellowish -white or white, in 

 some vermiculated white at tip ; centre of breast and belly white ; 

 vent ash-brown, feathers shaded white towards tip ; under tail- 

 coverts mostly white vermiculated and spotted dusky-brown ; 

 axillaries and under wing-coverts as in male ; tail and wing as in 

 male but black-brown tips to secondaries rather narrower. This 

 plumage is acquired by complete moult July to Nov. 



Adult female. Summer. — The body -feathers, tail, innermost 

 secondaries and coverts are moulted March to June. Coloration as 

 winter but sepia or black-brown feathers of upper-breast edged 

 golden cinnamon- brown ; sides of body and flanks cinnamon- 

 brown, feathers tipped buff-brown ; rest of under-parts sepia, 

 feathers of breast, belly and vent more or less tipped white or 

 yellowish -white (in some intermixed with white feathers) ; lower 

 under tail-coverts mottled white towards tip ; tail and wings as 

 winter. N.B. — Under-parts vary considerably individually from 

 more or less white with a few sepia feathers to mostly sepia with a 

 few white feathers. 



Nestling. — Like that of Common Pochard but upper-parts 

 darker with no light patches ; in some an indistinct brownish - 

 yellow patch on side of back below wing ; cheeks and sides of neck 

 sooty-yellow, in some almost as dark as upper-parts, indistinct 

 black-brown line from culmen around and beyond eye ; ill-defined 

 streak from lores to nape, connected in front of eye with first line ; 

 below this an ill-defined black-brown moustachial streak (these 

 lines absent in some) ; chin and throat sooty-yellow ; upper-breast 



