Hume, Game Birds Ind. iii. pp. 290, 436. -
The Stiff-tailed White-faced Duck.
Crown black; forehead, sides of the head, including the space above the eye, chin and nape pure white ; below this white the neck is black with a few buffy brown dots on the forepart; lower neck to the forepart of the back except in the centre, chestnut red, which extends to the foreneck and upper breast, where it is delicately marked with buffy white; back and scapulars ochreous or reddish buff; rump darker, brownish or finely vermiculated with blackish ; lower rump and upper tail coverts chestnut red ; quills greyish black, the secondaries externally and the larger wing coverts greyish buff, vermiculated with blackish grey; lesser coverts dull ashy, but slightly vermiculated; tail long and stiff and blackish in colour, under parts buffy white, obscurely marked with reddish brown; flanks dull chestnut brown, tinged with warm buff and vermiculated with darker brown; bill much swollen at the base, pala ultramarine blue in colour irides dark brown ; legs dull blackish plumbeous.
Length. - 17.5 inches} wing 6.3; tail 4.3; tarsus 1.35 ; culmen 1.9 ; gape 1.82.
The adult female differs from the male in wanting the clear white on the head and in being much richer in plumage; crown and nape blackish brown with a chestnut tinge ; sides of the head Similarly coloured but marked with white; a streak of white passes below the eye nearly to the nape ; and the chin and tipper throat are white slightly dotted with blackish brown. General colour of the upper parts darker than in the male, being deep chestnut red Under parts as in the male. Bill dull plumbeous 5 irides dark brown ; leg plumbeous black.
