119 
RED-HEADED DUCK. 
AJVAS FERIJVJl. 
[Plate LXX, — Fig. 6, Male.'] 
Gmel. Syst. I, p. 530, No. 31 ; A, rufa. Id. p, 515, No. 71.— 7n(/. Orn. p, 862, No. IT-.p 
863, No. 78. Rufous-necked Duck, Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 477, No. 32 ; Pochard, Id. p. 523 
No. 68. — Red-head Duck, Lawson’s Carolina, p. 150. — Bewick, II, p. 320. — Arct 
Zool. No. 491. Rr. Zool. No. 284. — Le Miliouin, Briss. VI, p. 384, No. 19, pi. 35, fig 
1 ; Le Miliouin noir. Id. p. 389, A, young male? ; Le Miliouin du Mexique, Id. p. 390 
No. 20 , female? — Buff. IX, />. 216. PI, Lnl. 803. — TEMM.il/an. i/’Om. />. 869. — Wil 
LUCHBY, p. 367, ^ XI. — Montagu, Orn. Die. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2710; female 
No. 2711. 
THIS is a common associate of the Canvass-back, frequenting 
the same places, and feeding on the stems of the same grass, the 
latter eating only the roots; its flesh is very little inferior ; and it 
is often sold in our markets for the Canvass-back, to those unac- 
quainted with the characteristic marks of each. Anxious as I am 
to determine precisely whether this species be the Red-headed 
Wigeon, Pochard, or Dun bii-d*" of England, I have not been able 
to ascertain the point to my own satisfaction ; though I think it 
very probably the same, the size, extent, and general description 
of the Pochard, agreeing pretty nearly with this. 
The Red-head is twenty inches in length, and two feet six 
inches in extent; bill dark slate, sometimes black, two inches 
long, and seven eighths of an inch thick at the base, furnished 
with a large broad nail at the extremity; irides flame-colored; 
plumage of the head long, velvetty, and inflated, running high 
above the base of the bill; head, and about two inches of the 
* Local names given to one and the same Duck. It is also called the Poker. 
