Head and neck bright chestnut; breast black; flanks and scapulars with undulating lines of black and grayish white: no speculum: bill black, with a broad transverse blue band.

Anas ferina, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn.- ii. p. 868. Pochard, Mont. Orn. Diet, & Supp. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 353. Redheaded Pochard, Selb. Illust. vol. ii. p.347. pl. 63. f. 1. (Trachea,) Linn. Trans, vol. iv. pl. 14. f. 5.

Dimensions

Entire length nineteen inches: length of the bill (from the forehead) two inches, (from the gape) two inches three lines; of the tarsus one inch nine lines; of the tail two inches six lines; from the carpus to the end of the wing eight inches three lines: breadth, wings extended, twenty-nine inches seven lines.

Description

(Male). Head and neck bright chestnut-red: upper part of the back, breast, and rump, black; middle and lower regions of the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, flanks, and thighs, grayish white, with numerous fine undulating black lines; belly and abdomen whitish, very faintly undulated in the same manner, the lines becoming darker towards the vent: secondary quills bluish gray: primaries, and tail, dark cinereous brown, approaching to dusky: upper and under tail-coverts black: bill black, with a broad transverse band in the middle of deep bluish gray: iridesorange-yellow: legs bluish gray; membranes black. (Female). Crown, nape, sides of the neck, and upper part of the back, reddish brown; throat, and fore part of the neck, white, mixed with reddish; breast reddish brown, the feathers edged and mottled with reddish white; flanks with large brown spots; middle of the belly grayish white: back and wings much as in the male, but the undulating lines less distinct. Young males of the year resemble the female. In those of one and two years, the breast is dusky brown, and the head and neck not so bright as in the adult. (Egg). Greenish white: long. diam. two inches three lines and a half; trans, diam. one inch seven lines and a half.

Not uncommon on the British coasts during the winter season. Has been known to breed in Norfolk, but the greater part retire northwards in the Spring for that purpose. Eggs twelve to fourteen in number. Food, small fish, marine plants, and insects.