ANATIN^ — THE DUCKS — ENICONETTA. 



65 



Duck" — so called from the similarity of its markings to those of that animal. On 

 the coast of ]S'e^v Jersey it was known as the " Sand-shoal Duck." It is said to 

 subsist on small shells and other fish, which it procures by diving. Its flesh is not 

 considered a delicacy, although this bird is said to be seen from time to time in the 

 New York markets during every season. 



Mr. George A. Boardman, writing to the '"Naturalist" (III. 383), states that 

 not many years ago this was a common bird all along our coasts from Delaware to 

 Labrador ; and that in the New York market there would at times be dozens of them, 

 and then not one for several years. It would, he adds, be very interesting to know 

 where they have gone. So good a flier and diver cannot, like the clumsy Alcct impen- 

 nis, have become extinct. That it has not entirely disappeared jVIr. Boardman has 

 himself received evidence, single individuals of this species having been occasionally 

 procured in the Bay of Fundy. 



Genus ENICONETTA, Gray. 



Macropus, Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 450 (ncc Spix, 1824). 



Polystida, Eyton, Brit. Birds, 1836 (type, Anas Stelleri, Gmel.) ; antedated by Polystide, Smith, 



1835. 

 Stellaria, Bonap. Comp. List, 1838, 57 (same type) ; err. typ. for Stellcria, preoccupied in Zoology. 

 Stdlcria, Bonap. Cat. Met. 1842, 74. 

 Eniconetta, Gray, Genera B. 1840, 75 (same type). 

 Hcniconetta, Agass. Ind. Univ. 1846, 178 (nom. emend.). 



Char. Bill a little longer than the tarsus, and about intermediate in form between that of 

 CamptolcBmus and that of IJ istrionicus, compressed, and tapering toward the end, with a broad, 

 depressed, and indistinctly defined nail, as in the latter, but with the maxillary tomium very 

 convex basally and smuated terminally, as iu the latter ; edges of the maxilla turned imvarcl 



'Vn^-J^:^2^^'-_;3 





£. Stelleri. 



against, and partly enclosing, the mandiljle ; feathers of the head and neck peculiarly soft and 

 velvety, except on the lores and occiput, where stiffened, on the latter elongated, and formmg a 

 short transverse, crescent-shaped tuft. Tertials greatly decurved or falcate, but broad to the tip. 

 Tail graduated, of fourteen pointed feathers. Colors of the male beautifully varied. 



This genus is quite intermediate between CamptolcBmus and Histrionicus in the form of the bill 

 VOL. II. — 9 



