ANATIDJE. 



their escape the first opportunity ; and if the old ones are 

 taken and confined, they lay their eggs in a dispersed 

 manner, and never sit. The voice of the bird when flying 

 is not unlike the note of a clarionet : at other times it 

 cries like a Peacock, especially when kept confined ; and 

 now and then clucks like a hen. The organ of voice is 

 unknown to me. Each bird is very choice of its mate, 

 for if the male is killed, the female will not leave the 

 gunner till she has been two or three times shot at. 

 Quoting the Memoirs of the Baron de Tott, who travelled 

 in Tartary and the Crimea, Latham says, the Tartars 

 pretend that the flesh of this bird is exceedingly dangerous : 

 " I tasted it," says he, " and only found it exceedingly 

 good-for-nothing." These birds go in pairs during the 

 summer; at other times gregarious. 



In the adult male the beak is lead colour ; the irides 

 yellowish brown ; head, cheeks, and chin, buff colour, be- 

 coming darker, almost an orange brown, towards the lower 

 part of the neck all round ; towards the bottom of the 

 neck a ring of black ; the back, tertials, breast, and all the 

 under surface of the body, the same ; the point of the wing, 

 and the wing-coverts, pale buffy white ; wing-primaries 

 lead grey, almost black ; secondaries rather lighter in 

 colour, the outer webs short of the end, forming a bril- 

 liant green speculum ; rump and tail-feathers lead grey ; 

 legs, toes, and their membranes, brownish grey. 



The whole length is twenty-five or twenty-six inches ; 

 the females are rather smaller in size ; and the female in the 

 Newcastle Museum is thus described by Mr. Fox : " The 

 crown of the head and the neck is of a mouse grey ; the 

 front, cheeks, and throat, pure white. The whole of the 

 breast, belly, upper part of the back, and scapular fea- 

 thers, which are very long, of a light ferruginous, which 

 is the prevailing colour of the bird. The feathers are 



