429 



DUCKS. 



DUCKS. 



430 



Kent; no females for comparison; numerous in Dukhuu ; Bhynchaapw 

 virescem, Leach,. Manuscripts, Anas clypeata, Liun. ; identical with 

 British specimens of the common Shoveler, but differing from the 

 description of that bird in Shaw ; Mareca fistularis, Steph., Anas 

 Penelope, Linn., Widgeon, absolutely identical with specimens from 

 Devonshire; Querquedula Oircia, Steph., A nas Circia, Linn., Garganev, 

 identical with British specimens ; Querquedula crecca, Anas crecca, 

 Linn., Common Teal, identical with male and female British speci- 

 mens. 



Mr. Keith Abbott ('Zool. Proc.,' 1834), in his ' List of Trebizond 

 Birds," enumerates Anas Boschai, Linn., the Mallard, as almost uni- 

 versal ; and A. Querquedula, Linn., which is noted as inhabiting 

 India as well as Europe, and as common in the Himalaya range. 



The sub-family Futigulitwe includes the genera Somateria, Oidemia, 

 >>a, Clangula, and Harelda. 



The FuKgulina, or Sea-Ducks, as they have been not inaptly named, 

 frequent the sea principally ; but many of them are to be found in 

 the fresh-water lakes and rivers where the water is deep. The plu- 

 mage is very close and thick in comparison with that of the True 

 Ducks (Analina), and the covering of the female differs much in hue 

 from that of the male, which when adult undergoes but little change 

 in its dress from the difference of season. The young resemble the 

 female in their feathered garb, and do not assume the adult plumage 

 till the second or third year. Moulting takes place twice a year, 

 without change of colour. In the male the capsule of the trachea is 

 large. 



The Sea-Ducks are not good walkers, on account of the backward 

 position of their feet, but they run, or rather shuffle along rapidly, 

 though awkwardly. They swim remarkably well, though low in the 

 water, and excel in diving, whether for amusement, safety, or food, 

 which last consists of insects, mollusks, the fry of fish, and marine or 

 other aquatic vegetables. They take wing unwillingly as a security 

 from danger, relying more confidently on their powers of diving and 

 swimming as the means of escape than on those of flight. Though 

 they are often strong, steady, rapid, and enduring in their passage 

 through the air, they generally fly low, laboriously, and with a whist- 

 ling sound. 



This sub-family may be considered to be monogamous, and the 

 nest is frequently made near the fresh waters; the female alone 

 incubating, though both parents, in several of the species at least, 

 trip the down from their breasts as a covering for the eggs, which 

 are numerous. 



The North may be considered the great hive of the Fuliyulirwe ; 

 though some of the forms are spread over the greater part of the 

 globe. Large flocks are seen to migrate periodically, keeping for the 

 most part the line of the sea-coast, and flying and feeding generally 

 by night, though often, especially in hazy or blowing weather, by day. 



Somateria (Leach). BiU small, with the base elevated and extending 

 up the forehead, where a central pointed line of feathers divides it ; 

 the anterior extremity narrow but blunt ; nostrils mesial ; neck 

 thick ; wings short ; tertiaries long, and generally with an outward 

 curve, so as to overlie the primaries. Tail moderate, consisting of 

 14 feathers. 



This genus is peculiarly marine. Sir John Richardson, whose 

 opportunities of observing the northern birds were so great and so 

 well used, says that Somateria tpectabili* and S. mollissima are never, 

 as he believes, seen in fresh water ; their food consisting mostly of 

 the soft Mollusca in the Arctic Sea. They are, he says, only partially 

 migratory, the older birds seldom moving farther southward in 

 winter than to permanent open water. He states that some Eider- 

 Ducks pass that season on the coast of New Jersey, but that the 

 King-Ducks (.S'. tpectabilis) have not been seen to the southward of 

 the 69th parallel. Audubon however says that in the depth of winter 

 the latter have been observed off the coast of Halifax in Nova Scotia, 

 and Newfoundland, and that a few have been obtained off Boston, 

 and at Eastport in Maine. 



The genus is remarkable for the high development of the exqui- 

 sitely soft and elastic down so valuable in commerce, and so essential 

 to the keeping up of the proper balance of animal heat in the icy 

 regions inhabited by these birds. 



fS. mollissima (A nas mottissima, Linn.), the Eider-Duck. This is the 

 Oie a Duvet ou Eider of the French ; Eider-Gans and Eiter-Ente of 

 the Germans ; Oca Settentrionale of the Italians (' Stor. degli Ucc.'); 

 the Kider-Goose, Eider-Duck, St. Cuthbert's Duck, Cuthbert Duck or 

 Cutbert Duck, Great Black and White Duck, and Colk Winter Duck, 

 of the British ; Hwyad fwythblu of the Welsh ; Dunter Duck of the 

 Hudson's Bay residents ; and Mittek of the Esquimaux. 



The following is Sir John Richardson's description of a male killed 

 June 14, 1822, at Winter Island, 66 114' N. lat. : Circumference of 

 the frontal plates, forehead, crown, and under eye-lid, deep Scotch 

 blue; hind head, nape, and temples, siskin-green. Stripe on the top 

 of the head, cheeks, chin, neck, breast, back, scapulars, lesser coverts, 

 curved tertiaries, sides of the rump, and under wing-coverts, white ; 

 the tertiaries tinged with greenish-yellow, and the breast with buff. 

 Greater coverts, quills, rump, tail and its coverts, and the under 

 plumage, pitch black ; the end of the quills and tail fading to brown. 

 Bill, oil-green. Legs, greenish-yellow. 



The biH is prolonged on the lengthened depressed forehead into 

 two narrow flat plates that are 'separated by an angular projec- 

 tion of the frontal plumage. Nostrils not pervious. Neck short and 

 thick. Wings nearly three inches shorter than the tail. Hind toe 

 attenuated posteriorly iuto a broad lobe. The length of this bird' was 

 25 inches 6 lines. The female is pale rufous or yellowish brown with 

 black bars ; wing-coverts black with ferruginous edges ; greater 

 coverts and secondaries with narrow white tips ; head and upper part 

 of the neck striped with dusky lines ; beneath, brown with obscure 

 darker blotches. 



Bill of Eider-Duck (Somateria molliisima'). 



The young at the age of a week are of. a dark mouse-colour, thickly 

 covered with soft warm down. 



The young male is like the female ; and does not appear in the full 

 adult male plumage till the fourth year. 



The icy seas of the north appear to be the principal localities of 

 this species. Colonel Sabine enumerates it among the animals which 

 were met with during the period in which the expedition under 

 Captain Parry remained within the arctic circle. He mentions it as 

 abundant on the shores of Davis's Strait and Baffin's Bay ; but adds 

 that, deriving its food principally from the sea, it was not met with 

 after the entrance of the ships into the Polar Ocean, where so little 

 open water is found. The females were without the bands on the 

 wings described by authors. (' Appendix to Captain Sir W. E. Parry's 

 First Voyage,' 1819-20.) Captain Lyon saw the Eider in Duke of 

 York's Bay. ('Journal.') Sir James Ross (' Appendix to Captain Sir 

 John Ross's Last Voyage ') notices vast numbers of the King-Duck as 

 resorting annually to the shores and islands of the arctic regions in 

 the breeding season, and as having on many occasions afforded a 

 valuable and salutary supply of fresh provision to the crews of the 

 vessels employed in those seas. Speaking of the Eider-Duck he says 

 it is so similar in its habits to the King-Duck that the same remarks 

 apply equally to both. In Lapland, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and at 

 Spitzbergen, the Eider-Duck is very abundant ; and it abounds also at 

 Behring's Island, the Kuriles, the Hebrides, and Orkneys. In Sweden 

 and Denmark it is said to be more rare, and in Germany to be only 

 observed as a passenger. Temminck states that the young only are 

 seen on the coasts of the ocean, and that the old ones never show 

 themselves. Sir James Ross, in the 'Appendix' above alluded to, 

 speaking of the eider-down, says that the down of the King-Duck is 

 equally excellent, and is collected in great quantities by the inhabit- 

 ants of the Danish colonies in Greenland, forming a valuable source 

 of revenue to Denmark. A vast quantity of this down, he adds, is 

 also collected on the coast of Norway and in some parts of Sweden. 

 The Eider-Duck is found throughout Arctic America, and is said to 

 wander in severe winters as far south to sea as the capes of the Dela- 

 ware. From November to the middle of February small numbers 

 of old birds are usually seen towards the extremities of Massachusetts 

 Bay and along the coast- of Maine. A few pairs have been known to 

 breed on some rocky islands beyond Portland, and M. Audubou found 

 several nesting on the island of Grand Mauan in the Bay of Fundy. 

 Prince Bonaparte notes it as rare and adventitious in the winter at 

 Philadelphia, The most southern breeding-place in Europe is said 

 to be the Fern or Farn Isles on the coast of Northumberland. 



Willughby, quoting Wormius, says that the Eider-Ducks "build 

 themselves nests on the rocks, and lay good store of very savoury 

 and well-tasted eggs; for the getting of which the neighbouring 

 people let themselves down by ropes dangerously enough, and with 

 the same labour gather the feathers (Eider-Dun our people call 

 them), which are very soft and fit to stuff beds and quilts ; for in a 

 small quantity they dilate themselves much (being very springy), and 

 warm the body above any others. These birds are wont at set times 



