226 
ANAS EERINA. 
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 unacquainted 
with the characteristic marks of each. Anxious as I 
am to determine precisely whether this species be the 
red-headed wigeon, pochard, or dun bird* of England, 
I have not been able to ascertain the point to my owp 
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 coloured ; plumage of the 
head long, velvety, and inflated, running high above the 
base of the bill ; head, and about two inches of the neck, 
deep glossy reddish chestnut ; rest of the neck and 
upper part of the breast, black, spreading round to the 
back ; belly, white, becoming dusky towards the vent 
by closely marked undulating lines of black ; back and 
scapulars, bluish white, rendered gray by numerous 
transverse waving lines of black; lesser wing-coverts, 
brownish ash ; wing-quills, very pale slate, dusky at the 
tips ; lower part of the back and sides under the wings, 
brownish black, crossed with regular zigzag lines of 
whitish ; vent, rump, tail, and tail-coverts, black ; legs 
and feet, dark ash. 
The female has the upper part of the head dusky 
brown, rest of the head and part of the neck, a light 
sooty brown ; upper part of the breast, ashy brown, 
broadly skirted with whitish ; back, dark ash, with 
little or no appearance of white pencilling ; wings, bill, 
and feet nearly alike in both sexes. 
This duck is sometimes met with in the rivers of 
North and South Carolina, and also in those of Jersey 
and New York, but generally in fresh water, and usually 
* Local names given to one and the same duck. It is also called 
the poker. 
