202 ANATIDE. 



Legs short ; feet of four toes, broadly webbed, hind toe with a deeply lobated 

 membrane. Wings only of moderate length, with the first quill-feather equal 

 in length to the second. 



The distinffuishinof characters, both external and internal, 

 of the first division of true Ducks, will be found at page 148 

 of the present volume ; those of the second division of these 

 birds which now remain to be described are decidedly dif- 

 ferent, and may be thus stated : — Externally they exhibit the 

 neck and wings short, the latter only reaching to the origin 

 of the tail-feathers ; the legs short and compressed ; the hind 



• 



toe lobated, with an extended web to the inner toe. They 

 frequent the sea, or the deep parts of the largest fresh-water 

 lakes, and have been called Oceanic Ducks ; seldom seen on 

 land ; their walk embarrassed from the backward position of 

 the legs, but they dive constantly and with great flicility, 

 taking their prey at various depths below the surface ; their 

 food fish, shelled mollusca, Crustacea, and marine insects, but 

 little or no vegetable production ; their powers of flight mo- 

 derate. Of their soft parts, the oesophagus is capable of great 

 dilatation ; the stomach is a muscular gizzard, but the in- 

 ternal cavity is large, and the sides comparatively thin. The 

 ribs are elongated ; and the keel of the breast-bone decreases 

 in depth, in those species which in their habits most resemble 

 the Mergansers. 



Tlie Eider Duck, though indigenous to some of the north- 

 ern parts of England, as well as several of the Scottish Is- 

 lands, is only a winter visiter to the southern portions of the 

 kingdom, and that too in very limited numbers. It is but 

 rarely killed in Ireland, and has been seen on the Cornish, 

 Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Hampshire coasts. A fine 

 adult bird was obtained in the London market in January 

 last. On the other side the Channel, M. Baillon, of Abbe- 

 ville, procured a female which was killed in Picardy, during 



