384 



POCHARD. 



grey ; back and scapulars cinereous and dusky, disposed in small undu- 

 lated lines ; smaller wing coverts darker ; greater coverts and secondary 

 quill-feathers blue-grey ; primary quills dusky ; rump and under tail- 

 coverts black ; under part of the body dusky-white, marked with nu- 

 merous small dusky lines, darkest at the vent ; the tail consists of four- 

 teen feathers, dusky, dashed with ash colour ; legs lead colour ; feet the 

 same, very broad. 



The female differs in having the head and neck ferruginous-brown ; 

 breast and belly dusky-white, clouded with brown ; under tail coverts 

 dusky and white ; in other respects like the male, but the markings 

 less distinct. 



*This species, though sometimes taken in the decoy pools in the 

 usual manner, are by no means welcome visitors ; for by their continual 

 diving, they disturb the rest of the fowls on the water, and prevent 

 their being enticed into the tunnels : and we are assured that they are 

 not to be decoyed with the other ducks. Pochards, like other wild 

 fowl, were taken in much greater abundance formerly, and in a very 

 different manner. 



The method practised, as we have been informed from good autho- 

 rity, was something similar to that of taking woodcocks. Poles were 

 erected at the avenues to the decoy, and after a great number of these 

 birds had collected for some time on the pool, (to which wild fowl 

 resort only by day, and go to the neighbouring fens to feed by night,) 

 a net was at a given time erected by pullies to these poles, beneath 

 which a deep pit had previously been dug ; and as these birds, like the 

 woodcocks, go to feed just as it is dark, and are said always to rise 

 against the wind, a whole flock was taken together in this manner ; for 

 when once they strike against the net, they never attempt to return, 

 but flutter down the net till they are received into the pit, from whence 

 they cannot rise, and thus we are told twenty dozen have been taken 

 at one catch. 



The tracheal labyrinth belonging to the male of this species is (as 

 Dr. Latham observes) something like that of the scaup, but shorter, 

 and of nearly the same diameter throughout. The drum-like labyrinth 

 is more round on the upper side, but crossed with a small bony parti- 

 tion, as in that bird. The bony box of which the other portion con- 

 sists, is scarcely elevated on this side, and on the other much less so 

 than in the scaup ; it likewise forms an obtuse angle with the rest of 

 the trachea, but in the scaup it does not deviate from a continuation of 

 a straight line, though forming a considerable enlargement. 



It has been said that this species will not live in confinement ; on 



