106 ANATID.E. 



quenting Lake Baikal and the River Lena ; and was named 

 by him Anas glocitans. On the authority of Mr. Pennant 

 the species has subsequently been included among the birds 

 of Great Britain, by writers on British Ornithology ; but no 

 further account has reached us of the specimen alluded to 

 by that distinguished naturalist, nor has it been ascertained 

 whether it was preserved after it was communicated to him. 

 The specimen of both male and female, from which I have 

 taken the description, were sent up from a decoy near 

 Maldon in Essex, to Leadenhall market, in the winter of 

 1812-13. Here they were observed by a respectable natu- 

 ralist, Mr. George Weighton, of Fountain Place, City-road, 

 who immediately purchased them and set them up. From 

 his collection they have subsequently passed into mine. 

 There can be little doubt of the two birds being sexes of 

 the same species. They agree in all the essential particulars 

 that serve to identify the species of this family ; their bill, 

 legs, and feet, exactly according in structure, and the colour- 

 ing and markings of the speculum on the wings, a distinguish- 

 ing character among the Anatida, being precisely the same. 

 We have moreover, in favour of this conclusion, the negative 

 evidence that the other sex of neither of these birds has until 

 now been ascertained ; and we have the positive evidence 

 that both these specimens were taken in the same decoy and 

 at the same time." 



Such was the account of this species, furnished by one of 

 our most distinguished naturalists at that time, and but little 

 has been learned since. Of its habits or its nidification, 

 nothing, that I am aware of, is known. Mr. Proctor sent 

 me word that he saw this species at Iceland, but could not 

 obtain it. M. Temniinck, including a notice of it in the 

 fourth part of his Manual, has furnished some particulars of 

 its plumage, which will be given here after the description of 

 the adult male. I looked in vain for any account of this 



