C 216 



r LONG TAILED 



26. GLACIALIS. JDUCK OR SWAL- 



HYEMALIS, LIN. (fern.) ~) LOW TAILED 



SHELDRAKE. 



A. cauda acuminata elongata, corpore nigro, subtus 

 albo. (mas adultus.) Lath. 



The hill is short, black at the base and tip, crossed 

 in the middle by a band of orange red ; irides light 

 hazel ; the head is pale reddish brown, aad white, 

 with an oval shaped black and chesnut patch on 

 each side; the breast, shoulders and back are choco- 

 late brown ; the belly, vent and scapulars are white ; 

 the tail feathers white, the four middle ones black, 

 two of them four inches longer than the others ; the 

 legs and toes are pale blue. 



The female is more dusky, wanting the long tail 

 feathers. 



She lays 4 or 5 bluish white eggs, in a nest lined 

 with a large quantity of her down. 



It sometimes happens, as is the case with the 

 Eider Duck, that two females lay in one nest and 

 mutually assist one another in incubation. 



They visit Orkney in October, in some which 

 we dissected from thence, we found the crop and 

 gizzard full of minute testaceae. 



