328 NEW-YORK FAUNA — BIRDS. 



(3.) Tail very long and tapering, of fourteen feathers : bill short and high at the base, suddenly con- 

 tracting towards the tip ; nostrils large. Hareld a. 



THE OLD-WIFE. 



FULIGULA GLACIALIS. 



PLATE CXIX. FIG. 263. , 



(STATE COLLECTION.) 



Anas glacialis, Li.nn.sus, p. 203. Long-tailed Duck, Pennant, Arct. Zool. Vol. 2, p. 566. 



A. id. Wilson, Am. Orn. Vol. 8, p. 93, pi. 70, fig. 1 (winter male) ; fig. 2 (female). Nottall, Man. Orn, 



Vol. 2, p. 453. 

 F. (Clangvla) id. Bonaparte, Ann. Lye. N. Y. Vol. 2, p. 395. Audubon, B. of A. Vol. 6, p. 379, pi. 410 



(male, female and young). 

 Harelda id. Richardson, F. B. A. Vol. 2, p. 460. Giraud, Birds of Long island, p. 339. 



Characteristics. Mirror brown : a greyish space around the eye. Male, varied with black 

 and white ; middle tail-feathers excessively long : winter, head and neck 

 white ; scapulars pearl-grey. Female, dusky brown ; throat and collar 

 ash grey ; crown blackish : winter, beneath white. Length, 19 inches, 

 excluding the tail-feathers. 



Description. Bill short, compressed, 1 " 5 long, higher than broad at the base, depressed 

 towards the end : feathers of the frontlet but slightly advanced ; tip short, robust, rounded : 

 teeth above and below subequal. Nostrils broad, basal. Central pair of tail-feathers in the 

 male 7 ' - 8 ' 5 long, linear for two-thirds of their length ; the lateral ones very acute. Tarsus 

 1*4 : web of the hind toe passing beyond the nail. 



Color, varying with age, sex and season. Male in winter : Bill black, with a broad band 

 of yellowish ; the tip dark grey or dusky. Frontlet and cheeks, including the eye, brownish 

 drab, passing into a large blackish patch on each side of the neck, which is itself bordered 

 beneath with reddish drab. Summit of the head pale yellowish. Chin, the back and front 

 of the neck, abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts white ; upper part of the back, scapulars, 

 tertials and flanks pearl-grey. A triangular space on the back, together with the rump, upper 

 tail-coverts and wing-coverts, black : secondaries reddish brown. Breast and quills brownish 

 black. Summer, a space on the base of the neck above, and broad margins of the scapulars 

 and tertials, bright chesnut ; neck black, mottled in front with white ; sides of the face soiled 

 drab ; centre of the rump black. Female in summer ; Sides of the face, and spot on the 

 throat, soiled white ; summit of the head, and a large space on the sides of the neck, dark 

 ash ; nape, front and lower part of the neck, the vent and abdomen pure white. Winter, 

 centre of the crown, and a spot on the neck, blackish ; beneath pure white ; above, the back, 

 scapulars and lesser wing-coverts bright rusty ; inner vanes of all but the two middle feathers 

 white. Young, resembling the female in summer plumage. 



Length, 1 8 • - 20 • 0, excluding the tail. 



