SOMATERIA.] AVES NATATORES. 237 



* GEN. 93. DENDRONESSA, Swains. 



* 246. D. Sponsa, Swains. (Summer Duck.) A pendent occipital 

 crest, variegated with green, purple, and white. 



D. Sponsa, Faun. Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 446. Summer Duck, Lath. Syn. 

 vol. in. p. 546. Wits. Amer. Orn. vol. vin. p. 97. pi. 70. f. 3. (Trachea,) 

 Mont. Orn. Diet. Supp. App. last plate, f. 5. 



DIMENS. Entire length twenty-one inches: length of the bill (above) one inch 

 four lines and a half, (to gape) one inch ten lines; of tarsus one inch six lines ; of 

 middle toe and claw two inches ; of tail four inches six lines ; of folded wing nine 

 inches. Faun. Bor. Am. 



DESCRIPT. (Male.) Head above, and space between the eye and the bill, glossy 

 dark green ; cheeks, and a large patch on the sides of the throat, purple, with blue 

 reflections ; pendent occipital crest of green and auricula purple, marked with two 

 narrow white lines, one of them terminating behind the eye, the other extending 

 over the eye to the bill ; sides of the neck purplish red, changing on the front of the 

 neck and sides of the breast to brown, and there spotted with white : scapulars, 

 wings and tail, exhibiting a play of duck-green, purple, blue, and velvet-black, 

 colours ; interscapulars, posterior part of the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, 

 blackish green and purple ; several of the lateral coverts reddish orange ; a hair- 

 like, splendent, reddish purple tuft on each side of the rump ; the under coverts 

 brown : chin, throat, a collar round the neck, a crescentic bar on the ears, the 

 middle of the breast, and whole of the abdomen, white : flanks yellowish gray, 

 finely undulated with black ; the tips of the long feathers, and also of those on the 

 shoulder, broadly barred with white and black : inner wing-coverts white, barred 

 with brown : almost all the coloured plumage shows a play of colours with metallic 

 lustre : bill red ; a space between the nostrils, its tip, margins, and lower mandible, 

 black: legs orange. Faun. Bor. Am. (Female.) Without the fine lines on the 

 flanks, and the hair-like tufts on the sides of the rump : crest shorter : the plumage 

 less vivid, particularly about the head, where it is mostly brown. Faun. Bor. Am. 

 (Egg.) Smooth ; yellowish white : long. diam. one inch ten lines ; trans, diam. one 

 inch six lines. 



A pair of these birds, male and female, were shot about two or three years since 

 near Dorking in Surrey, but as the species is strictly a native of America, and is 

 often kept in aviaries, its claims to a place in the British Fauna must be considered 

 as extremely doubtful. It is probable that the above individuals had escaped from 

 confinement. Common in Mexico, and other parts of North America ; breeding in 

 hollow trees. Said to lay thirteen eggs. Food, according to Wilson, principally 

 acorns, seeds of the wild oats, and insects. 



GEN. 94. SOMATERIA, Leach. 



247. S. mollissima, Leach. (Eider Duck.) Lateral 

 prolongations at the base of the bill in the form of two 

 narrow flat lamellae: bill and legs greenish gray. 



Anas mollissima, Temm. Man. a" Orn. torn. n. p. 848. Eider Duck, 

 Mont. Orn. Diet. $> Supp. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. n. p. 305. 

 Common Eider, Selb. Illust. vol. n. p. 338. pis. 70, & 70*. (Trachea,) 

 Linn. Trans, vol. xn. pi. 30. f. 1, & 2. 



DIMENS. Entire length twenty-four inches: length of the bill (from 

 the forehead) two inches three lines, (from the gape) two inches ten 

 lines ; of the tarsus two inches ; of the tail four inches ; from the carpus 

 to the end of the wing eleven inches six lines. 



DESCRIPT. (Male.) Contour of the frontal lamellse, forehead and 

 crown, taking in the eyes, black, glossed with violet; a longitudinal 

 band on the top of the head, cheeks, throat, and front of the neck, 

 whitish; occiput, nape, and a large patch beneath the temples, green- 

 ish white ; lower part of the neck, back, scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, 



