42 
FANCY WATERFOWL. 
with white or grey, \ whereby they are easily dis- 
tinguished from other ducks. 
r 
THE ROSY-BILLED POCHARD. 
(Metopiana peposaca . ) 
This handsome species, usually known simply as the 
Rosy-billed Duck, is nearly as big as the common Wild 
Duck. The drake has a knob at the root of the bill of 
a bright red colour, the bill itself being pink with a black 
tip ; the plumage is mostly black, glossed with purple 
on the head, but the flanks and belly are pencilled grey 
and the stern white. The feet are orange with black 
webs, and the eye red. He undergoes no change in 
plumage at all after breeding. The duck is brown above 
and whitish below, with a white throat and stern, and a 
grey wing bar, the drake’s being white. Her bill also 
is grey, and her eyes brown. The young are much 
like her, with grey legs. This fine duck inhabits 
South America, and is a comparatively recent intro- 
duction as an ornamental waterfowl, having been 
imported within the last fifty years. It is a better 
walker than Pochards in general, and dives less, going 
under with more of a spring when it does do so. It is 
a good breeder, and home-bred birds are stated to be 
superior to wild ones in the colour of the bill and 
development of the knob at the base — such appendage®, 
indeed, seem to have a tendency to appear or increase in 
domestication, witness the knob of the Chinese Goose 
and the wattle of the Muscovy Duck. The breeding 
time is from July to September, according to Miss 
Hubbard. 
This is a very showy duck, and the fact that the drake 
retains his handsome plumage all the year through is a 
point very much in its favour, both as an ornament 
and as an exhibition bird, while it needs less water than 
other Pochards, being content with quite a small 
pond, as may be seen in the case of those placed 
back of the refreshment room at the London Zoo, where 
this species has hybridised with the rest. 
THE RED-CRESTED POCHARD. 
(Netta rufina.) 
This is also a large bird for a Pochard, but smaller 
and squattier than the Rosybill. The head-feathering 
is very full and soft, especially in the drake, in which it 
forms a remarkably bushy crest, commonly carried 
erect, which gives him a very quaint appearance. His 
colour is also very striking, being light brown above and 
jet black below and on the rump, with white flanks and 
a pinky-cinnamon head, the crest being of a lighter 
shade — a golden -buff, in fact. The white flanks have 
an exquisite blush of salmon colour when the bird is in 
fullest colour, and the whole is set off by a scarlet bill 
and eyes and orange feet with black webs. Taken 
altogether, he is one of the showiest of all waterfowl. 
The duck is a plain light brown above and greyish- 
white below from chin to tail ; her feet are duller than 
the drake’s, and her bill black with an orange tip. The 
drake in this species, unlike most Pochards, shows a 
very marked summer change, and after it resembles the 
duck very closely, but may be easily distinguished by 
his red bill and darker belly. 
This Pochard inhabits Southern Europe and Central 
Asia, migrating to India from the latter in winter, when 
it is very abundant in that country : like the last 
species, however, it is of comparatively recent intro- 
duction as an ornamental bird, and many arc still sent 
to Europe, although it has been bred both on the Con- 
tinent, and in England by Miss Hubbard. 
1 1 is a better walker and a less clean and inveterate 
diver than most Pochards, but still does not look its best 
on land, and I am rather surprised at Miss Hubbard s 
success in rearing the young in a coop on grass. How- 
ever, it is satisfactory to know that it is so easily dealt 
with, for a more striking bird is not easily found, both 
fori the contrasts of its plumage and the exquisite 
delicacy of some of the hues exhibited, to say nothing 
of the curious bushy crest. The eggs are also remark- 
ably beautiful, being of a bright green ; five to eleven 
are laid, in the spring. The drake of this species 
whistles, while the duck croaks like other Pochard 
ducks, the note of the ducks of this section not being an 
ordinary quack. 
THE REDHEADED OR COMMON POCHARD. 
(Nyroca ferina.) ■’ 
This is a very clumsy-looking duck of medium size, 
with very large head and feet and broad, flat body. The 
drake is at once known by his tricoloured plumage, the 
head being chestnut, the breast and stern black, and 
the body pencilled grey. The duck has a nut-brown 
head, and breast, and a duller grey body colour, Both 
1 n,v0 grey and black bills and feet, like all the remain- 
ing Pochards. The drake does not go out of colour 
much, merely becoming duller in summer. His eyes 
are red, while the duck’s are dark brown. 
This Pochard has a wide range in the Old World, 
breeding to the north and migrating south in winter. 
The American Pochard is hardly more than a variety, 
but in America is found also the celebrated Canvas- 
back ( Nyroca vallisneria), which has not yet been 
imported alive ; it much resembles this Pochard, 
but is much larger and lighter below, with the 
bill all black. The Common Pochard breeds in 
small numbers in England, but is not a free 
breeder in confinement, in which state, however, its 
tameness and striking plumage make amends for its 
clumsy form. It is a very fine diver, like all those I 
shall have occasion to mention hereafter, and gets about 
better on land than one would expect from its build, 
though it looks most clumsy there. 
A bird I had appeared to remember me after an 
absence of three months, and St. John in his “ Natural 
History and Sport in Morayshire ” gives an instance 
wherein a Pochard, after escaping, recognised its friends 
and seemed pleased to see them. This Pochard has 
hybridised in captivity with the Tufted Pochard, the 
progeny proving fertile with one of the parent stocks, if 
1 remember rightly — the whole circumstance was related 
some time ago in The Feathered World by Mr. Verrall, 
I think. No doubt he could give exact details.* The 
* ’I lie extract to which Mr. Finn refers I do not think was 
related in F.W., but Mr. .Tenner We r, in writing to the Fast Sussex 
News of March 23rd, 11883, witli regard to the cutting down of the 
trees at the Lewes Pells, and the destruction of the Waterfowl there 
said : — 
“Then as to the ornamental Waterfowl. The Chinese Geese have 
been allowed to dwindle to one ; the Canada Geese, which have 
bred there, are now represented by one specimen ; the extraor- 
dinary hybrid ducks, between the tufted and pochard, seem all gone 
(this was a rare case ot Mules breeding — some were certainly three- 
quarters pochard, it not seven eighths) ; the male tufted duck, a 
pairing species, has about seven females left to choose between ; the 
Pintails. Widgeon, and Uarganey are all gone; the valuable ruddy 
Sheldrakes were disposed ot by a boy killing one with a stone, for 
which offence a reward was offered for the detection of the offender, 
and the other was snot by one in authority. The five beautiful 
hybrids, between the Wild Duck and Pintail, are reduced to three 
by slaughter, and I am told that the person who ate them said 
‘ there was not much on them.’ I am informed that the diving 
ducks bred oil the Pells are not ever pinioned, so they are soon 
lost, as only the Wild Duck will remain ill the water it is 
bred on, the rest are all migratory. Then where are the Swans? 
a municipal bird, usually served up at the annual banquet.” 
To this letter Mr. Verrall sent a characteristic reply, from which I 
take the following extract “ The person who ate the hybrid ducks 
and did not find much on them, should have done the same as 
Mr. Joseph Shelley when the Carolinas were killed some years 
ago. He had them put in a glass case. By such a 
course it would have oe on found they had something on them, 
not seen on ordinary ducks viz., uncommon plumage. The 
male hybrids bred here, if in good plumage, are "worth 10s. 
each for stuffing and a much higher price when alive. Even in the 
coming breeding season attempts might be made to pinion the 
young of the divers, which are now advertised so high as two guineas 
a pair. Selling them would be a far more sensible plan than shoot- 
ing and selling them dead at 3s. the pair. The two or three mongrel 
bred drakes now on the Pells should be immediately dispose! of, 
