THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
COMMON POCHARD 
NYROCA FERINA 
(Plate XXX, Fig. 2.) 
Fuligula ferina, Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 367 (1837); Dresser, Birds Europe, vi, p. 551, 
pi. 434 (1878) ; Hume & Marshall, Game Birds Ind., Hi, p. 247, pi. 33 (1880) ; Lilford, Col. 
Fig. Brit. Birds, part xiii, pi. (1890) ; Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 443 (1899). 
Nyroca ferina, Salvador!, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 335 (1895). 
DULT male. — Head and neck chestnut; upper mantle and 
chest black; back, wings, sides and flanks greyish -white, 
/ finely vermiculated with black; lower back darker, 
i shading into black on the rump and upper and under tail- 
t coverts; upper breast black, the feathers fringed with 
^ sandy-white; lower breast and upper part of the abdomen 
greyish -white, faintly vermiculated with blackish, much paler than the 
upperparts; lower abdomen darker and more densely vermiculated with 
dusky, several of the longer outer secondaries mostly grey, edged on the 
outer web with black; inner ones white, mottled with greyish and tipped with 
white; shorter inner primary quills grey, tipped with blackish; longer 
quills more smoky-brown, with the outer webs and tips blackish; axillaries 
pure white; tail dark grey. Iris yellow; bill black at the base and tip, the 
intermediate portion dull light blue; legs and toes dark lead -blue, webs 
blackish. Total length about 18 inches; bill 1*9 inch; wing 8*5 inches; 
tail 2 2 inches; tarsus 1 5 inch. 
Adult male in eclipse-plumage . — Resembles the female very closely. 
Adult female . — Head and neck dull reddish-brown, paler on the fore- 
neck, and shading into whitish on the chin and throat; upper mantle and 
chest browner; back, scapulars, sides and flanks whitish, vermiculated 
with blackish -brown; rump and upper tail -coverts black; upper breast 
brown, the feathers tipped with white, and showing the dark bases; 
lower breast and belly similar, but with wider white tips, which for the 
most part mask the greyish -brown bases; lower belly and under tail- 
coverts smoky -brown, ''finely vermiculated with whitish; secondary quills 
and wing-coverts grey without whitish vermiculations; primary quills as in 
the male; axillaries white ; tail blackish. Iris brown; bill duller than in 
the male; legs dark leaden -grey. Total length about 18 inches; bill 1 * 8 
inch; wing 8* 1 inches; tail 2*1 inches; tarsus l*5 inch. 
366 
