WILD FOWL. 93 



of color. The full-plumed male is as follows : length twenty 

 inches ; extent twenty-nine inches ; the base of the bill and 

 edges of both mandibles for two-thirds of their length, are of a 

 pale orange-color; the rest black; towards the extremity, it 

 widens a little in the manner of the Shovellers, the sides there 

 having the singularity of being only a soft, loose, pendulous 

 skin ; irides dark-hazel ; head and half of the neck white, 

 marked along the crown to the hind head with a stripe of black ; 

 the plumage of the cheeks is of a peculiar bristly nature at the 

 points, and round the neck passes a collar of black, which 

 spreads over the back, rump, and tail coverts ; below this collar 

 the upper part of the breast is white, extending itself over the 

 whole scapulars, wing coverts, and secondaries ; the primaries, 

 lower part of the breast, whole belly, and vent, are black; tail 

 pointed, and of a blackish hoary color ; the fore part of legs 

 and ridges of the toes, pale whitish-ash ; hind part the same, 

 bespattered with blackish ; webs black ; the edges of both man- 

 dibles are largely pectinated. In young birds, the whole of the 

 white plumage is generally strongly tinged with a yellowish 

 cream color ; in old males, these parts are pure white, with the 

 exception sometimes of the bristly, pointed plumage of the 

 cheeks, which retains its cream tint the longest, and with the 

 skinny part of the bill, form two strong peculiarities of this 

 species. 



" The female measures nineteen inches in length, and twenty- 

 seven in extent ; bill exactly as in the male ; sides of the front 

 white ; head, chin, and neck, ashy-gray ; upper parts of the 

 back and wings, brownish-slate ; secondaries only white ; ter- 

 tials hoary; the white secondaries form a spot on the wing, 

 bounded by the black primaries, and four hoary tertials edged 

 with black ; whole lower parts a dull-ash, skirted with brown- 

 ish-white, or clay color ; legs and feet as in the male ; the bill 

 in both is marked from the nostrils backwards by a singular, 

 heart-shaped outline. 



" The windpipe of the male measures ten inches in length, 

 and has four enlargements, viz., one immediately below the 



