THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
BAER’S POCHARD OR EASTERN WHITE- 
EYED POCHARD 
NYROCA BAERI 
Nyroca baeri, Salvador!, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 344 (1895). 
DULT male. — Head and neck black, glossed with dark 
green; a white spot on the chin; upperparts dark sooty- 
/ brown , the inter scapular region faintly ver miculated with 
rufous ; chest and breast rich chestnut ; abdomen white, 
i sharply defined from the breast; vent smoky-brown, 
^ ver miculated with whitish; under tail -coverts white; 
sides and flanks reddish-brown; wings dark brown; the longer outer 
secondary quills glossed with dull oily-green; inner secondaries white, 
tipped with black, glossed with oily-green; shorter inner primary quills 
white, tipped with dark brown; longer outer quills brownish -black on 
the outer webs and tips, whitish on the inner webs; axillaries white, 
slightly ver miculated with dusky at the tip; tail blackish -brown. Iris 
white or pale yellow; bill bluish, with the base and nail black; legs and 
feet lead-grey, with the joints dusky. Total length about 18 inches; bill 
1 8 inch; wing 8 *3 inches; tail 2 4 inches; tarsus 1 4 inch. 
Adult female . — ^Very similar to the male, but the head and neck are 
browner, and have very little gloss, and there is a dull chestnut patch at 
the base of the bill; the upper breast is duller chestnut. Iris white; bill 
black, with a bluish-grey band across it; legs and feet plumbeous. Total 
length about 17*5 inches; bill 1*7 inch; wing 7 8 inches; tail 2 *3 inches; 
tarsus 1 *3 inch. 
General distribution. — Baer’s pochard is the eastern representative of 
the ferruginous duck, with which it has been frequently confused, though 
really a very distinct species. 
It breeds in Eastern Siberia and Kamchatka, ranging in winter to India, 
Burma, China and Japan, even visiting the Waigiu Islands to the west of 
New Guinea. 
A male, shot on the Tring Reservoirs in Hertfordshire, on November 5, 
1901, was believed to be a wild bird, but the evidence in support of this 
seems scarcely sufficient. It must, however, be noted that at the time 
this specimen was obtained, the only examples of Baer’s pochard known 
to exist in this country were four pinioned birds in the Zoological Gardens 
at Regent’s Park. 
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