433 



DUCKS. 



DUCKS. 



434 



Oidcmia (Fleming). Bill broad with dilated margins, and coarse 

 lamelliform teeth, gibbous above the nostrils, which are nearly 

 mesial, large, and elevated ; tail of 14 feathers. 



The Oidemiai seek their food at sea principally ; and have obtained 

 the name of Surf-Ducks, from frequenting its edge. The prevailing 

 colour of the tribe is black in the male, and brown in the female. 

 The plumage is very thick and close ; and, according to Audubon, 

 the down in the Velvet-Duck (Oidemia fusca) is similar to that of the 

 Eider-Duck, and apparently of equal quality. Their flesh is high- 

 flavoured and oily, according to Sir John Richardson, who gives that 

 character to the flesh of three species, namely, 0. perspicillata, 0, 

 futca, and 0. niffra. The two former, according to that enterprising 

 zoologist, breed on the arctic coasts, migrate southward in company 

 with Ctanyula (Hardda >) ylacialis, halting both on the shores of 

 Hudson's Bay and on the lakes of the interior, as long as they remain 

 open, and then feed on tender shelly Molluica. 0. niffra, he adds, 

 frequents the shores of Hudson's Bay, and breeds between the 50th 

 and 60th parallels. It was not seen in the interior. 



0. pertpicittata, A no* pertpicillata of Limiieus, the Black or Surf- 

 Duck. This is the Macreuse a Large Bee, ou Marchand, and t Canard 

 Marchand, of the French ; the Black-Duck, of Pennant ; and the Great 

 Black-Duck from Hudson's Bay of Edwards. 



The male is velvet black, with a reddish reflection ; throat brownish ; 

 a broad white band between the eyes, and a triangular patch of the 

 same on the nape ; bill reddish-orange, the nail paler ; a square black 

 spot on the lateral protuberance; legs orange; webs brown; bill 

 much like that of the Velvet-Duck (0. futca), but the lateral protu- 

 berances are naked and horny, and the central one is feathered farther 

 down ; the laimmu are distant, and the lower ones particularly 

 prominent, with cutting edges. As in the other Oidemia, the bill 

 and forehead are inflated, causing the head to appear lengthened and 

 the crown depressed ; the nostrils are rather large, and nearer to the 

 point than to the rictus. Length 24 inches. (Richardson.) 





Bill of Surf-Dock (Oidemia prrtpirillata). 



The female and young are of a black ashy brown wherever the 

 male is deep black. Head and neck lighter ; frontal band and great 

 angular space upon the nape indicated by very bright ashy brown. 

 Lateral protuberances of the bill but little developed, and the whole 

 bill of an ashy yellowish colour. Feet and toes brown ; webs black. 

 (Temininck.) Sir John Richardson observes that the under plumage 

 in particular is paler, that the back and wing-coverts are narrowly 

 edged with gray, that the breast, flanks, and ears have some whitish 

 edging", that the bill is black, its base not so much inflated, and that 

 the nostrils are smaller than in the male. 



This bird is rare and accidental in the Orcades, and in the higher 

 latitudes towards the pole ; very rare in the cold and temperate 

 countries bathed by the ocean ; very common and numerous in 

 America, at Hudson's and Baffin's Bays. Such is Temminck's 

 account. Nuttall says that this species of duck, with other dark 

 kinds commonly called on the other side of the Atlantic 'coot**,' may 

 be properly considered as an American species; its visits in the 

 Orkneys and European seas being merely accidental. They breed on 

 the arctic coasts, and extend their residence to the opposite side of 

 the continent, having been seen at Nootka Sound by Captain Cook. 

 The bird is not mentioned in the notice of the animals which were 

 met with during the period in which the expedition remained within 

 the arctic circle, appended to Captain Sir W. E. Parry's ' First 

 Voyage,' nor in Captain James Ross's 'Appendix to Captain Sir John 

 Roan's Last Voyage." Prince Bonaparte notes it as very common, 

 and most abundant in the sea in the neighbourhood of the shore at 



In summer the Surf-Duck feeds principally in the sea, and haunts 

 shallow scut j. and bays, where it maybe seen constantly 



diving for its shelly food. The surf is a favourite station with it. 

 Hudson's Bay and Labrador are among its breeding places, and the 



1CAT. HI8T. DIT. VOL. II. 



nest is formed of grass with a lining of down or feathers, on the 

 borders of fresh-water ponds. The eggs are white, and from four to 

 six in number. The young are hatched in July, and detained on the 

 borders of the ponds, where they were excluded from the egg, until 

 they are able to fly. Their migrations extend to Florida, but they 

 often remain throughout the winter along the shores and open bays 

 of the United States. At the end of April or early in May they again 

 proceed northward. 



Surf-Duck (Oidemia perspicillata), male. 



The flesh of the old birds is very dark, red, and fishy when dressed ; 

 the young are of better flavour. They are however often eaten by 

 the inhabitants of the coasts frequented by them ; and being difficult 

 to approach, they are decoyed by means of a wooden figure of a duck 

 of the same general appearance with themselves. 



Fuiiyula (Ray). Bill flat, broad, long, with hardly any gibbosity at 

 the base, and rather dilated at the extremity. Nostrils suboval, 

 basal. Tail short, of 14 feathers, graduated laterally. First quill 

 longest. 



The sea, and its bays and aestuaries, are the principal haunts of this 

 genus. Sir John Richardson states that F. Valisneria, F. ferina, F. 

 marila, and F. rufitorques, breed in all parts of the Fur Countries, 

 from the 50th parallel to their most northern limits, and associate 

 much on the water with the Anatince. P. rvJbida, he remarks, fre- 

 quents the small lakes of the interior up to the 58th parallel, and he 

 adds that it is very unwilling to take wing, and dives remarkably 

 welL In swimming, according to the same observer, it carries its 

 tail erect, and, from the shortness of its neck, nearly as high as its 

 head, which, at a little distance, causes it to appear as if it had two 

 heads. 



P. Valisneria (Anas Valisneria of Wilson), Canvass-Back-Duck. 

 The male has the region of tho bill, top of the head, chin, base of the 

 neck, and adjoining parts of the breast and back, rump, upper and 



Bill of Canvass-Back Duck (Fuligula 

 under tail-coverts, pitch-black ; sides of the head and the neck reddish- 

 orange ; middle of the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, tips of the secon- 

 daries, tcrtiaries, Banks, posterior part of the belly and thighs, 

 grayish-white, finely undulated with hair-brown ; primaries and their 

 coverts hair brawn, their tips darkest ; secondaries ash-gray, tipped 

 with white; the two adjoining tertiaries edged with black. Belly 

 white, faintly undulated ou the medial line. In some specimens the 



Si 



