234 .AIERGUS ALBELLUS. 



■what larger than our common Teal, seems nearly as much 

 allied to the Ducks as to the Mergansers. Its body is oblong, 

 full and much depressed ; the neck of moderate length ; the 

 head rather large, oblong, and compressed. 



The bill is rather shorter than the head, straight, rather 

 slender, considerably higher than broad at the base, tapering, 

 and becoming nearly cylindrical toward the end ; the upper 

 mandible with its dorsal line gently declinate and nearly 

 straight to beyond the middle, then direct, abruptly decurved 

 on the unguis, w'hich is oblongo-elUptical and transversely 

 convex, the ridge broad and flattened at the base, gradually 

 narrowed, toward the end convex, the edges marginate, nearly 

 straight, with about forty short, oblique lamellae, of which 

 the outer ends are dentiform, tapering, and project consider- 

 ably ; the nasal sinus oblong, sub-basal, covered by the soft 

 membrane of the bill ; lower mandible Avith the intercrural 

 space long, narrowly pointed, partially bare ; the crura slen- 

 der, with their lower outline straight, a little convex at the 

 base, the sides convex, sloping outwards, grooved, the mar- 

 gins with about sixty minute, erect, dentiform lamellae, the 

 unguis oblongo-triangular, convex in both directions. 



The roof of the mouth is nearly flat, with a median ridge, 

 and on each side a series of very slender oblique lamellae 

 besides the marginal plates. Nostrils oblongo-elliptical, two- 

 twelfths and a quarter in length, sub-medial, near the margin. 

 Eyes small. Legs very short, and placed far behind ; tibia 

 bare for only a quarter of an inch ; tarsus very short, much 

 compressed, with about twenty small medial, and six outer 

 scutella, the rest reticulated with small angular scales. The 

 hind toe very small, slender, with a rather large lobiform 

 membrane, and ten scutella ; the basal part of the second 

 scaly, its terminal part with eighteen scutella ; the third toe 

 a little longer than the outer, and double the length of the 

 tarsus, with forty scutella ; the fourth with forty-six. The 

 claws small, arcuate, compressed, rather shar^j, the inner edge 

 of the third a little dilated. 



The tongue, one inch five-twelfths long, is broader than 

 in the Mergansers, fleshy, papillate at the base, deeply 

 grooved above, covered there and on the edges with reversed 



