BAER'S POCHARD 
Nyroca baeri (Radde) 
Anas {fuhgula) baeri, Radde ; Reise S. O. Sibir, ii. p. 376, pi. xv., (1863) ; Nyroca baeri, Radde ; Salvadori, 
Cat B. M.y xxvii. p. 344 ; Blanford, Fauna B. /., p. 461 ; Gates, Ga7ne Birds, ii. p. 328 ; Stuart Baker, 
Indian Ducks, p. 223. 
Fuligula baeri, Finn ; P. A. S. B., 1896, p. 61 ; id. /ourn. A. S. B., Ixvi., pt. 2, p. 525 ; id. Indian Ducks^ 
Asian, 1899. 
Local Name. — Eastern White-Eye {English). 
^SS' — Only a very few examples of the egg of this species are known, and even these 
are not well authenticated. Three described by Goebel average in size 54 x 39 mm. Max. 
55 ><39» i^in. 53x39 (2.12 X 1.53 in.). Stuart Baker has a single egg measuring 2.01 x 1.51 
in. (51 X38.3 mm.), which he describes as slightly larger than the Ferruginous Duck ; colour, 
a dirty dull-coloured drab ; shape, a broad regular ellipse ; the gloss and texture similar to 
Ferruginous Duck eggs. Nehrkorn describes the egg as 51 x 38 mm. in size. Of the young 
in down I have seen no specimens. 
Immature Male. — Mr. Stuart Baker says (p. 224): "A young male in my possession 
has the whole head mottled brown and black, the new black feathers showing the sheen of 
the usual green gloss ; the breast is a queer mixture of dirty yellowish-brown and the deep 
rufous or bay of the adult bird ; the lower abdomen and vent are mixed brown and white. 
" Another young male exactly answers to the description above given for the female, 
but that the definition between head and abdomen is very sharp, and the olive gloss on the 
wing is highly developed." 
Baer's Pochard is easily recognised from the Ferruginous Duck by its larger bill and 
darker head and neck and upper parts. The passage of plumage is doubtless exactly 
similar to that species and the Common Pochard. 
Adult Male. — **A large spot at the angle of the chin, pure white; the remainder of 
the head and neck black, glossed with green ; breast, rufous-chestnut, that colour merging 
into the black of the head, but sharply defined the white of the abdomen and under tail- 
coverts ; the feathers of the vent brownish at the base ; flanks, rufous-brown ; upper parts, 
dark brown ; the scapulars and inter-scapulars very finely covered with narrow bars of 
lighter brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts, brown ; the back, a few of the feathers at the 
side finely vermiculated with white ; tail, brown ; wing-coverts, dark brown ; the outer 
secondaries, white, with a broad sub-terminal black band ; quills, brown ; the inner webs of 
the primaries, greyish-brown ; the inner secondaries, very dark brown ; in good specimens 
very narrowly-margined black on nearly the whole of the outer web, and glossed with 
olive-green. 
" Bill, dull slate-blue ; the basal third tip and nail, black ; irides, white ; legs and feet, 
greyish-lead ; joints and webs darker. 
42 
