437 



DUCKS. 



DUCKS. 



433 



not killed outright, it can rarely be captured ; so quick is the Spirit- 

 Duck in avoiding the shot altogether, and so dexterous in evading its 

 pursuer, if only wounded. About Hudson's Bay they are said to 

 form their nests in hollow trees in woods adjacent to water. (Wilson 

 Nuttall.) 



The flesh of the Spirit-Duck is not in high repute, but the females 

 and young are tender and well flavoured in the winter. The bird 

 becomes so fat that, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, it is commonly 

 called ' Butter-Box,' or 'Butter-Ball.' 



Spirit-Duck (Clangula albeola), male and female. 



C. vulgarit, A not Clangula Linn., the Common Golden-Eye, or 

 ( iarrot, is an inhabitant of the arctic regions of the New and Old 

 \VorMs, and is frequently met with in this country, and in Europe 

 generally. The species is distributed over the Swiss lakes. Mr. Gould 

 figures C. Barrmii and C. hiitrionica among the Birds of Europe, the 

 former having been shot in Iceland by T. C. Atkinson, Esq., and the 

 latter having been frequently captured in the British Islands. 



Ifarctda (Leach). Bill very short, high at the base, nail broad and 

 arched. Lamina; prominent, trenchant, and distant; the upper 

 Ininintc projecting below the margin of the mandible, the lower 

 lamina; divided into a nearly equal double series. Nostrils oblong, 

 large, and nearly basal. Forehead high ; neck rather thick. Tail very 

 long, of 14 feathers. Toes short. 



//.,//./. ,.///>, Ana ijliir'iitl'w, Linn., the Long-Tailed Duck. This 

 is the Canard a Longue Queue, ou Canard de Miclon, of the French ; 

 KU-Knte, Winter-Elite, of the Germans ; Ungle, Angeltaske, Tras- 

 foener, of the Norwegians ; Oedel of the Faroe Islanders ; Ha-Old, 

 Ha- Kilo, of the Icelanders; Swallow-Tailed Sheldrake, Sharp-Tailed 

 Duck, C'alao, Calaw, Coal and Candle Light, of the English; 

 llwyad gynffon gwennol of the Welsh; Old Wife and Swallow-Tailed 

 Duck of the Hudson's Bay residents ; South-Southerly of the United 

 States; Aldiggee-areoo of the Esquimaux; Caccawee of the Canadian 

 voyagers ; and Hahhaway of the Cree Indians. 



The old male in winter has the summit of the head, nape, front, and 

 lower parts of the neck, long scapulars, belly, abdomen, and lateral 

 ithera, pure white ; cheeks and throat ash-colour; a great space 

 of maroon-brown on the sides of the neck ; breast, back, rump, wings, 

 and the two long feathers of the middle of the tail, brownish ; flanks 

 ash-coloured ; the black of the bill cut transversely by a red band ; 



tarsi and toes yellow ; webs blackish ; iris orange. Length, comprising 

 the long tail-feathers, 20 to 21 inches. 



The old female differs much from the male. Tail short, the feathers 

 bordered with white and the two middle ones not elongated ; forehead, 

 throat, and eyebrows, whitish-ash ; nape, front, and lower part of the 

 neck, belly, and abdomen, pure white ; top of the head and great space 

 at the sides of the neck blackish ash ; breast variegated with ash- 

 colour and brown ; feathers of the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, 

 black in the middle, bordered and terminated with ashy-red ; rest of 

 the other parts brown ; the bluish colour of the bill cut by a yellowish 

 band ; iris bright brown ; feet lead-colour. Length 16 inches. 



The young of the year do not differ much from the old female ; the 

 whiteness of the face is varied with numerous brown or ash-coloured 

 spots ; throat, front of the neck, and nape, ashy -brown ; lower part 

 of the neck, a large spot behind the eyes, belly, and abdomen, white ; 

 breast and thighs variegated with brown and ash-coloured spots. 

 (Temminck.) 



Bill of Long-Tailed Duck (Seralda glaciatit). 



The summer dress of the male is as follows : The whole upper 

 plumage, the two central pairs of tail-feathers, and the under plumage 

 to the fore part of the belly brownish-black ; the lesser quills paler. 

 A triangular patch of the feathers between the shoulders, and the 

 scapulars, broadly bordered with orange-brown. Sides of the head 

 from the bill to the ears ash-gray ; eye-stripe and posterior under- 

 plumage pure white. Flanks, sides of the rump, and lateral tail- 

 feathers, white, stained with brown ; axillaries and inner wing-coverts 

 clove-brown. Bill black, with an orange belt before the nostrils. 

 Legs dark-brown. Specimens killed a fortnight or three weeks later 

 in the season at Bear Lake, on their way to the breeding-places, 

 differed in having a large white patch on the hind head and occiput, 

 with scattered white feathers on the neck and among the scapulars ; 

 the sides under the wings pure pearl-gray, and the sides of the rump 

 unstained white. (Richardson.) 



Colonel Sabine ('Supplement to Appendix of Captain Sir W. E. 

 Parry's First Voyage ') notices a male obtained in June, corresponding 

 precisely with the individual killed in Baffin's Bay in the summer of 

 1818, which furnished the description of the full breeding plumage 

 in the 'Memoir of the Greenland Birds.' Sir John Richardson observes 

 that Colonel Sabine describes the plumage of the specimens killed at 

 Bear Lake as the pure breeding plumage ; but individuals coloured 

 like the one killed on the Saskatchewan are, he remarks, often seen at 

 the breeding stations. He quotes Mr. Edwards, surgeon of the Fury 

 ('Sir W. E. Parry's Second Voyage'), as describing the Long-Tailed 

 Ducks killed at Melville Peninsula between the 1st and 25th of June 

 as follows : " They had all a dark silky chestnut-brown patch on the 

 side of the neck ; a mixture of white in the black stripe from the bill 

 to the crown ; the crown and nape either entirely white, or mixed 

 with black ; scapulars and upper tail-coverts edged with white ; 

 a broad white collar round the lower part of the neck, in some 

 individuals tipped with black or brown ; occasionally a white band 

 on the breast. The colour of the belt on the bill varied from rose-red 

 to violet." 



A mature female, killed May 25, lat. 65 30', had the upper plumage 

 and sides of the breast pale liver-brown, with dark centres ; the wing- 

 coverts, scapulars, and hinder parts, mostly edged with white. Top 

 of the head blackish-brown, its sides anteriorly broccoli-brown ; ears 

 and base of the neck below clove-brown. A spot at the base of the 

 bill and a stripe behind the eye white. Throat and collar ash-gray. 

 Tail-feathers brownish-gray, edged with white, short and worn. 

 (Richardson.) 



This bird is found in the arctic seas of both worlds ; an accidental 

 visiter on the great lakes of Germany, and along the Baltic ; often 



