238 AVES NATATORES. [SOMATERIA. 



curved tertiaries, and sides of the rump, pure white; breast white, with 

 a tinge of vinaceous red : belly, abdomen, and rump, deep black : quills 

 and tail-feathers dark ash-gray : bill dull green : irides brown : legs dull 

 greenish gray. {Female.) The whole plumage reddish brown, with trans- 

 verse black bars : head and back part of the neck marked with dusky 

 streaks: wing-coverts black, edged with ferruginous: across the wing 

 two rather indistinct white bars : belly and abdomen dark reddish brown, 

 with obscure transverse black bars. Young males are said not to attain 

 to maturity till the fourth year. According to Montagu, during the first 

 year, the back is white, and the usual parts, except the crown, black ; 

 but the rest of the body variegated with black and white. In the second 

 year, the crown of the head is black, and the neck and breast spotted with 

 black and white. (Egg.) Smooth, shining, olive-green : long. diam. three 

 inches ; trans, diam. two inches one line. 



Common in the northern parts of Britain, particularly in the Scotch 

 Islands, where it breeds. Rarely observed southwards; but has been 

 killed in a single instance on the coast of Devon. Nest placed on the 

 ground, near the edge of the sea, or on projecting rocks, formed of sea- 

 weed, and copiously lined with down, which the female plucks from her 

 body. Eggs five or six in number. Food, marine plants and insects, 

 small fish, and bivalve mollusca. 



248. S. spectabilis, Leach. (King Duck.) Lateral 

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

 elevated, compressed tubercles : bill red : legs ochre- 

 yellow. 



Anas spectabilis, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. n. p. 851. King Duck, 

 Mont. Orn. Diet. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. n. p. 310. King Eider, 

 Selb. Illust. vol. n. p. 343. pi. 71. (Trachea,) Linn. Trans, vol. xv. 

 pi. 15. f. c & d. 



DIMENS. Entire length twenty-four inches six lines : length of the 

 bill (from the forehead) one inch two lines, (from the gape) two inches 

 seven lines ; of the tarsus one inch ten lines and a half; of the tail four 

 inches three lines ; of the wing eleven inches six lines : height of the frontal 

 tubercles one inch six lines ; breadth of ditto one inch. Faun. Bor. Am. 



DESCRIPT. (Male.) Contour of the frontal tubercles, under eyelid, 

 edge of the upper one, and two converging bands on the throat, meet- 

 ing on the chin, rich velvet-black : crown, occiput, and nape, fine bluish 

 gray : cheeks and ear-coverts glossy pea-green, passing into dull white 

 towards the chin and neck ; a whitish line from the corners of the eye 

 down the sides of the occiput reaching to the nape; lower part of the 

 neck, and breast, white tinged with buff; upper part of the back, wing- 

 coverts, and a large space on each side of the rump, pure white : scapu- 

 lars, secondaries, curved tertiaries, lower part of the back, rump, tail- 

 coverts, belly, and abdomen, deep black : greater quills and tail blackish 

 brown : bill vermilion -red ; frontal tubercles, and base of the lower man- 

 dible, orange : legs ochre-yellow. (Female.) " Exactly resembling the 

 female Eider, except that the frontal plates of the upper mandible, in- 

 stead of being almost horizontal, are more nearly vertical. The bill is 

 also shorter than that of the Eider." Faun. Bor. Am. (Young male.) 

 " Head and neck dusky yellowish gray, crowded with blackish spots : 

 upper plumage mostly pitch-black, with yellowish brown edgings : breast 

 and Hanks yellowish brown, spotted and barred with black; belly the 



