P/ECTLONITTA ERYTIIRORII YNCH A . 
tip carmine red, the latter tinted with crimson red. Legs, toes, and webs 
intermediate between pale blackish purple and brownish red. Eyes deep 
chestnut-brown. 
Form, &c. — Body rather slender. Head large, deep, compressed, and 
arched superiorly; the forehead considerably inclined to the perpendicular ; 
the neck long and superiorly very slender. Wings long, pointed, and when 
folded reach nearly to the tip of the tail ; the second quill feather rather the 
longest, the first and third equal and rather shorter, the fourth not quite half 
an inch shorter than the third, and the fifth about half an inch shorter than 
the fourth ; the longest of the tertiary feathers equal in length to the second 
primary quill feather. Tail feathers of equal or nearly equal length, and all 
the feathers pointed and slightly rigid. Bill narrow, rather wider towards 
the tip than at the base, and considerably depressed, except close to the 
forehead, and superiorly slightly convex. Nostrils situated near to the base, 
on each side of the narrow bifurcate elevation of the culmen. Tarsi rather 
long and moderately strong ; anteriorly coated wuth a vertical row of small 
plates, laterally and posteriorly with small and irregular-shaped scales. 
Toes moderately long, the webs reaching to the claws ; the anterior edge of 
the inner one straight and oblique, that of the outer lunate. Claws short, 
slender, and slightly curved. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length from the point of the bill to the 
base of the tail . 11 
of the bill to the angle of the 
mouth 2 
of the tail 3 
of the wings when folded ... 8 
Female . — Colours not known. 
Specimens of this duck are occasionally observed in the interior of the Cape Colony, but 
owing to their being so vevy shy and inhabiting districts but little frequented, only few com- 
paratively are procured. The slightest noise in the neighbourhood of pools of stagnant water, 
to which they generally resort, excites their suspicion, and the instant they have reason to 
believe that danger threatens them they leave their feeding place, and seek security in some 
retired spot far from the source of their fears. 
Save that the wings of this duck are longer in comparison than those of Querquedula, and 
that the culmen close to the front is rather differently formed, I see no grounds for considering 
it as of a different groupe to the genus just mentioned. 
1 
0 
44 
Length of the tarsus ] 6 
of the outer toe 1 6 
of the middle toe 1 7 
of the inner toe 1 2 
of the hinder toe 0 4| 
