220 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



fourteen feathers of a hoary brown ; vent and 

 tail-coverts black, lining of the wing, white ; 

 legs and feet, very pale ash, the latter three 

 inches in width a circumstance which partly 

 accounts for its great powers of swimming. 

 The female is somewhat less than the male, arid 

 weighs two pounds and three-quarters ; the 

 crown is blackish brown ; cheeks and throat of 

 a pale drab; neck, dull brown; breast, as far as 

 the black extends on the male, dull brown, 

 skirted in many places with pale drab; back, 

 dusky white, crossed with fine, waving lines ; 

 belly, of the same dull white, pencilled like the 

 back ; wings, feet and bill as in the male ; tail- 

 covert, dusky ; vent, white, waved with brown. 

 The windpipe of the male has a large, flattish, 

 concave labyrinth, the ridge of which is covered 

 with a thin, transparent membrane ; where the 

 trachea enters this, it is very narrow, but im- 

 mediately above swells to three times that 

 diameter. The intestines are wide, and mea- 

 sure five feet in length." 



Ranking next to the canvass-back, in the 

 estimation of the sportsman and the epicure, is 



