1 6 British Diving Ducks 
culated with waving black bars; lower breast, belly, and flanks the same, becoming 
darker towards the vent; primaries dark grey, edged on the outside and tipped with 
dull black ; secondaries forming a dull grey speculum, the upper feathers edged with 
black, but not to the same extent as the American Pochard, of which these markings are 
a characteristic mark of identification. Upper part of the wing, dull grey with light grey 
vermiculations ; tail greyish brown. There is usually a pure white spot on the apex 
of the chin. 
The older the male, the richer and cleaner are the spring markings, so that the shoulders 
and scapulars look almost pearl-grey in the finest specimens. Irides, reddish-yellow until 
March, when they become a brilliant red, the colour of Japanese lacquer. Legs and feet, 
bluish or slatey-grey with dull black webs. Bill, upper part bluish-black separated from 
the black point by lead-blue crescentic bar. The nail is very black. The crescentic bar 
of lighter colour varies in size in individuals. Length, 1 8 to 20 inches ; wing, 8.5 to 9.5 
inches; tarsus, 1.4 to 1.5 inches; bill, 2.15 to 2.3 inches. Weight, i lb. 13 oz. to 2 lb. 
5 oz. (Hume). 
The eclipse plumage of the male Pochard is rare and little known, and was first 
described by Naumann.^ 
Specimens seem to have been unknown in this country until I exhibited two males, shot 
by myself on Loch Flemington, Nairnshire, on August i, 1890, at the meeting of the British 
Ornithologists' Club on April 25, 1906. Mr. Bonhote, who has kept Pochards in confine- 
ment, stated that males he kept in confinement had never assumed an eclipse dress, whilst 
others that I kept only showed a few feathers of such a plumage. The fact that my birds 
did exhibit a tendency to change led me to presume that in a wild state they would, 
under natural conditions, go still further, a surmise that proved to be correct. But it 
was only after repeated failures that I at last found some adult males in Nairnshire at 
the right season and succeeded in killing two in full eclipse dress. 
In July and August the adult male is very like the adult female in her breeding dress, 
a plumage very distinct from that worn by her in winter. But the male can always be 
recognised by having the under tail-coverts dull black and edged with grey, whilst the 
whole of the scapulars and mantle are light grey and vermiculated, the plumage being, 
however, much darker than that worn by the male in spring. The chest changes from 
black to dark grey, each feather edged with yellowish white in front, with russet at the 
upper mantle. The crown is dark brown, and cheeks and rest of the head and neck red 
brown ; the white spot on the chin disappears ; flanks, intermixed light grey vermiculated 
feathers and dark grey with sandy edges ; rump, dull black. The tail, wings, and wing- 
coverts are not shed until the middle of August, and then renewed direct to winter plumage ; 
the bill at this season is a dull bluish-black all over. 
The moulting season of the adult male commences early in July, and by the latter 
half of this month the tail and wings are falling and the bird is unable to fly for a 
short time. The adult females moult about a fortnight or three weeks later. It is not 
unusual to find that adult males have cast all traces of their eclipse dress by the last 
week in September and are in full winter plumage. 
^ Cf. Naturgesch Vog. Mitieleuropas, x., pp. 174-181; pi. xiv., fig. 2 (1901). This plumage is also mentioned by Seebohm, 
Hist. Brit. Birds, iii., p. 578 (1885). 
