346 



DUCKWEED DYNASTES. 



on her back, and swims a few yards with them, when 

 she dives, and leaves them on the surface to take 

 cure of themselves ; arid they are seldom afterwards 

 seen on land. When the natives come to the nest, 

 they carefully remove the female, and take away the 

 superfluous down and eggs. They then replace the 

 mother, and she begins to lay afresh, covering the 

 eggs with new down ; and when she can afford no 

 more, the male comes to her assistance, and covers 

 the eggs with his own down, which is white. When 

 the young ones leave the nest, it is once more 

 plundered. The best down and most eggs are got 

 during the first three weeks of their laying ; and it 

 has been generally observed that they lay the greatest 

 number of eggs in rainy weather. One female, during 

 the time of laying, usually yields half a pound of 

 down, which, however, is reduced one half after it is 

 cleaned. It is probable that the eiders, at least in 

 very many of their localities, depend upon the current 

 of the Atlantic for their food, and also for the mate- 

 rials for the nests ; and that, while this circulating of 

 the ocean waters brings the sporae or germs of the 

 sea-weed, and also the small animals which are 

 buried in these annually renewed deposits, the drift- 

 grass brought by the same current serves the birds 

 for the materials of their nests, just as the drift-wood 

 serves the people for their domestic purposes. This 

 wood furnishes an abundant supply in places where 

 not a tree grows ; and the drift-grass, in like manner, 

 brings a store for the birds to those dreary rocks 

 upon which there is not a particle of land vegetation. 



The length of the male eider is about two feet 

 three, and the stretch of the wings about three feet ; 

 the head is large, and the bill very peculiar ; it is 

 three inches long, and two plates from the side of it 

 extend up the forehead, with feathers between them ; 

 the colour of this bill is dull yellow ; the top of the 

 head is velvet black, divided posteriorly by a white 

 line on each side ; a portion of the side of the head is 

 pea-green, divided by a white patch ; the plumage 

 from this part to the throat is very thick, and the 

 feathers appear as if the ends were cut off; the upper 

 part of the neck, back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and 

 sides of the rump, are pare white, the under part 

 black ; the tail, and the primary and secondary quills, 

 dusky black ; the tertiaries yellowish white, and 

 curving down over the closed wing ; the tarsi are 

 short, and of a yellow colour, as are also the toes, 

 but the webs are black. The female is considerably 

 different ; it is smaller ; the bill does not rise so high 

 on the forehead, and the general colour is dark 

 reddish drab, with lighter blotches, and spots of black, 

 and the under part dusky, mottled with black. 



THE KING EIDER (5. spectabilis). This species 

 does not come so far southward as the common eider, 

 and therefore its history is less known, though it is 

 probable that some individuals breed in the more 

 remote British islands. It may readily be distin- 

 guished both by the bill and the plumage, and is 

 somewhat less than the other. The lateral prolonga- 

 tions of the bill on the forehead are arched, ridged 

 and furrowed ; the colour of the bill and feet is 

 bright reddish orange, but the terminal parts of the 

 plates toward the forehead are black ; the feathers 

 over the eye, at the base of the bill, and partly down 

 the sides of the neck, are bright green, meeting in 

 front, and gradually passing into whitish on the chin 

 which is marked with an angular bar of black ; the 

 ton of the head and back of the neck are ash-coloured 



he middle of the back black ; the coverts dusky, 

 vith a patch of white in the centre ; the quills black, 

 and the tertiaries curled over them ; the tail, which 

 s short and wedge-shaped, black, as are also the belly 

 and vent, but the lower neck and breast are whitish. 

 The female is smaller, of a brown and dusky colour, 

 las the plates of the bill less conspicuous, and the 

 tertiaries not curled over the wing. 



WESTERN EIDER (S. disparj. This is an inhabit- 

 ant of the North Pacific, though it sometimes finds its 

 way to the Atlantic, and, in a solitary instance, lias 

 been found in Britain. Bill black, hooked at the tip ; 

 ground-colour of the head and neck white, with a 

 reen band on the forehead, and another on the nape, 

 and a black collar, and the chin black ; upper part 

 black, gied with white, with the tertiaries much 

 produced, and curving gracefully over the wings ; 

 under part white forwards, and brown to the rear ; 

 feet lead-coloured, large and strong ; the whole body 

 elongated, and the head slender. 



Such is an outline of the interesting family of the 

 ducks ; but it would take much space, and more 

 labour and research, to fill up that outline with the 

 requisite minuteness of detail. 



DUCKWEED is the Lemna of Linnaeus, and that 

 well-known floating plant which forms " the green 

 mantle of the standing pool." It belongs to Monceda 

 Diandria, and to the natural order Fluvialcs. There 

 are four species, all indigenous to Britain. 



DULCAMARA is the Solamun dulcamara of 

 Linnaeus, a common British hedge plant, otherwise 

 called bitter-sweet. 



DUMB-CANE is the Caladium sequinum of 

 Ventenat, so called from its reputed property of tak- 

 ing away the power of speech, if eaten. 



DURANTA (Linnaeus). Tropical evergreen 

 shrubs, belonging to Didynamea Angiospernria, and to 

 the natural order Verbenacc<B. Generic character : 

 calyx tubular, rather truncated, five-cleft ; corolla 

 funnel-shaped, tube curved, limb five-lobcd, lobes 

 nearly equal, spreading ; stamens within the tube ; 

 anthers roundisn ; style filiform ; stigma thickened ; 

 drupe united to the calyx. This is a pretty genus, 

 and thrives under the ordinary management, flowering 

 freely, and is raised from cuttings. 



DUVALLIA (Haworth). A genus of succulent 

 plants, natives of the Cape of Good Hope. Linnaean 

 class and order, Pentandria Digynia, and natural order, 

 AsclepiadecB. These plants require to be potted in 

 dry sandy soil, mixed with lime rubbish. Very little 

 water is necessary, for if it becomes stagnant about 

 the roots, the plant is apt to rot. They are propa- 

 gated by cuttings, which should be dried in the sun 

 till the wound is healed, and then placed in dry soil 

 to make roots. 



DYNASTES (MacLeay ; SCARAB^CS, Linnaeus, 

 and of the modern French authors). A genus of 

 coleopterous insects, belonging to the section Penta- 

 mera, sub-section Lameflicornes, and family Dynas- 

 tidce of MacLeay, in which the body is very large ami 

 thick, the outer edge of the jaws sinuatcd or toothed, 

 and the lower jaws corneous and toothed. This 

 genus comprises the largest and most robust of the 

 insect tribes, and many of the species are armed with 

 remarkable spines upon the head or thorax, which 

 gives them a very formidable appearance. They are, 

 nevertheless, quite harmless in their habits, residing 

 in their early stages on the decaying bark of trees, 

 their larvae resembling 1 those of the cock-chaffer and 



