Baer's Pochard 
43 
"Length, i8 to 20 inches; wing, 8.2 to 9.5; bill from point to forehead, 1.75, from 
extreme base, 2.2, from gape, 2.1 ; breadth at base, .73, and at broadest part .86 ; tarsus 1.4." 
— Stuart Baker (p. 223). 
Adult Female. — " Like to male, but the head is blackish-brown unglossed with green, 
and has the anterior part rufous ; the spot on the chin appears to be smaller, and the breast 
and lower part of the neck are. more rufescent and paler ; the whole tone of the bird is 
duller, and the definition between the breast and abdomen is blurred and indistinct, while 
the abdomen itself appears to be a sullied, not pure, white. 
" Irides grey or brown, perhaps white in very old females;^ bill and feet as in the 
male, but still duller. 
"Length about 16 inches, being about 7.5; tail, 2.3; bill from point of forehead, 1.7, 
from extreme base, 1.98, from gape 1.9, in breadth .61, and at the widest part, .85 ; tarsus 
about 1.4." — Stuart Baker (p. 223). 
Mr. Finn states that the females vary in size more than the males, and some are much 
duller and less like to males than others, a comparison we often notice in the Tufted Duck, 
sometimes due to age. 
Breeding Range. — The breeding range of this species is centered in North-Eastern 
Asia. Seebohm gives it as the Amur Valley, Dresser (Eggs of European Birds, p. 571) 
mentions Kamtschatka, Ussuriland, Central Amur, and the Argun River as its common 
home. In the Argun River Valley (a tributary of the Amur) Dybowski obtained specimens 
in spring (/. F. O., 1874, p. 337). 
It certainly occurs in Kamtschatka (Stejneger, Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus., x. p. 137), Man- 
churia, Ussuria, Argun River, and probably in Ochotsck, where Mr. J. Scott saw ducks 
answering its description in 191 1. It probably breeds throughout this region, although 
nothing definite is known regarding its breeding habits or eggs. 
Migration Range: Asia. — It occurs in Manchuria {Ibis, 1909, p. 461); China, found 
on the Yangtse {P. Z.S., 1 871, p. 419 ; Cat. D. Br. Mus., xxvii. p. 344) ; Ibis, 1891, pp. 328- 
497 ; has been taken at Shanghai {Cat. B. Br. Mus.), and been known as a regular visitor 
to China (David, Dis. Chine., p. 507); Ussuriland (/. E. O., 1874, p. 337; 1875, p. 257; 
Japan (Seebohm, B. Jap. Emp., p. 254; see also Ibis, 1874, p. 22, &c. ; 1878, p. 215); 
India, a regular and not uncommon visitor to the north-eastern provinces of India and 
Western Burmah (Stuart Baker, Indian Ducks, p. 274) ; considered by Gates to be common 
in Cachar, Sylhet, Manipur, and Burmah, but Baker says that though it may occur in the 
three first-named it is not common. Harington {B. of Burmah) says that it is a regular 
cold-weather visitor to Mandalay, and records it from Bhamo and Chindwin. 
The only example taken in the British Islands, or, in fact, in Europe, is one shot on the 
Tring Reservoirs on the 5th of November 1901. The specimen, a male, was exhibited by 
the Hon. N. C. Rothschild, at the meeting of the B.O.C., November 20, 1901, who urged 
in support of its claim as a British bird that no specimen had escaped from the Zoological 
Gardens, where four examples existed at this date, and which at the time were the only 
known ones in confinement in this country. At that time I knew of no other specimens, but 
her Grace the Duchess of Bedford has since informed me that there were examples of Baer's 
Pochard on the lake in front of the Abbey at Woburn at this date, and she believed it 
^ This is correct; one of the females in confinement in the Zoo, 1901, had white irides. — J. G. M. 
