THE SUMMER DUCK. 



501 



DESCRIPTION. 



Head and crest metallic-green to below the eyes; the cheeks, and a stripe from 

 behind the eye, purplish; a narrow short line from the upper angle of the bill along 

 the side of the crown and through the crest, another on the upper eyelid, a stripe 

 starting below and behind the eye, and running into the crest paralle with the one 

 first mentioned, the chin and upper part of the throat sending a well-defined branch 

 up towards the eye, and another towards the nape, snowy-white; lower neck and 

 jugulum, and sides of the base of tail, rich-purple; the jugulum with triangular 

 spots of white and a chestnut shade; remaining under parts white, as is a crescent 

 in front of the wing bordered behind by black; sides yellowish-gray, finely lined 

 with black ; the long feathers of the flanks broadly black at the end, with a sub- 

 terminal bar, and sometimes a tip of white ; back and neck above nearly uniform 

 bronzed-green and purple ; scapulars and innermost tertials velvet-black, glossed on 

 the inner webs with violet ; the latter with a white bar at the end ; greater coverts 

 violet, succeeded by a greenish speculum, tipped with white ; primaries silvery-white 

 externally towards the end ; the tips internally violet and purple ; iris bright-red. 



Female with the wings quite similar ; the back more purplish ; the sides of the 

 head and neck ashy ; the region round the base of the bill, a patch through the eyes, 

 and the chin, white ; the purple of the jugulum replaced by brownish; the waved 

 feathers on the sides wanting. 



Length, nineteen inches; wing, nine and fifty one-hundredths ; tarsus, one and 

 forty one-hundredths ; commissure, one and fifty-four one-hundredths inches. 



Hob. Continent of North America. 



This, the most beautiful of all our Ducks, is pretty abun- 

 dantly distributed through New England in the breeding 

 season. Wilson's description of its habits is so much 

 better than I can give, that I make a liberal extract from 

 it. He says, 



" The Summer Duck is equally well known in Mexico and many 

 of the "West India 

 Islands. During the 

 whole of our winters, 

 they are occasionally 

 seen in the States 

 south of the Potomac. 

 On the 10th of Janua- 

 ry, I met with two on 

 a creek near Peters- 

 ourg, in Virginia. In 

 the more northern dis- 

 tricts, however, they are migratory. In Pennsylvania, the female 

 usually begins to lay late in April, or early hi May. Instances 



