124 LONG-TAILED DUCK. 



migrating south to avoid the severest rigors of that climate. They are 

 common to the whole northern hemisphere. In the Orkneys they are 

 met with in considerable flocks, from October to April ; frequent in 

 Sweden, Lapland, and Russia ; are often found about St. Petersburgh, 

 and also in Kamtschatka. Are said to breed at Hudson's Bay, making 

 their nest among the grass near the sea, like the Eider Duck, and about 

 the middle of June, lay from ten to fourteen bluish Avhite eggs, the size 

 of those of a pullet. When the young are hatched the mother carries 

 them to the water in her bill. The nest is lined with the down of her 

 breast, which is accounted equally valuable with that of the Eider Duck, 

 were it to be had in the same quantity.* They are hardy birds, and 

 excellent divers. Are not very common in England, coming there only 

 in very severe winters ; and then but in small straggling parties ; yet 

 are found on the coast of America as far south at least as Charleston 

 in Carolina, during the winter. Their flesh is held in no great estima- 

 tion, having a fishy taste. The down and plumage, particularly on the 

 breast and lower parts of the body, are very abundant, and appear to 

 be of the best quality. 



The length of this species is twenty-two inches, extent thirty inches ; 

 bill black, crossed near the extremity by a band of orange ; tongue 

 downy ; iris dark red ; cheeks and frontlet dull dusky drab, passing 

 over the eye, and joining a large patch of black on the side of the 

 neck, which ends in dark brown ; throat and rest of the neck white ; 

 crown tufted, and of a pale cream color ; lower part of the neck, breast, 

 back, and wings black ; scapulars and tertials pale bluish white, long 

 and pointed, and falling gracefully over the wings ; the white of the 

 lower part of the neck spreads over the back an inch or two, the white 

 of the belly spreads over the sides, and nearly meets at the rump ; 

 secondaries chestnut, forming a bar across the wing ; primaries, rump, 

 and tail-coverts black ; the tail consists of fourteen feathers, all remark- 

 ably pointed, the two middle ones nearly four inches longer than the 

 others ; these, with the two adjoining ones, are black, the rest white ; 

 legs and feet dusky slate. 



On dissection, the intestines were found to measure five feet six 

 inches. The windpipe was very curiously formed ; besides the labyrinth, 

 which is nearly as large as the end of the thumb, it has an expansion 

 immediately above that, of double its usual diameter, which continues 

 for an inch and a half; this is flattened on the side next the breast, 

 with an oblong window-like vacancy in it, crossed with five narrow 

 bars, and covered with a thin transparent skin, like the panes of a 

 window ; another thin skin of the same kind is spread over the exter- 

 nal side of the labyrinth, which is partly of a circular form. This 



* Latham. 



