LONG-TAILED DUCK. 



[Plate LXX. Fig 2, Female.] 



Anas hyemalis, LINN. Syst. 202. 29. LATH. Syn. in, p. 529.* 

 PEALE'S Musum, JVo. 2811. 



THE female is distinguished from the male by wanting the 

 lengthened tertials, and the two long pointed feathers of the 

 tail, and also by her size, and the rest of her plumage, which 

 is as follows: length sixteen inches, extent twenty -eight inches; 

 bill dusky; middle of the crown and spot on the side of the 

 neck blackish; a narrow dusky line runs along the throat for 

 two inches; rest of the head and upper half of the neck white, 

 lower half pale vinaceous bay blended with white; all the rest 

 of the lower parts of the body pure white; back, scapulars, and 

 lesser wing coverts bright ferruginous, centred with black, and 

 interspersed with whitish; shoulders of the wing, and quills 

 black; lower part of the back the same, tinged with brown; 

 tail pale brown ash, inner vanes of all but the two middle fea- 

 thers white; legs and feet dusky slate. The legs are placed far 

 behind, which circumstance points out the species to be great 

 divers. In some females the upper parts are less ferruginous. 



Some writers suppose the singular voice, or call, of this spe- 

 cies, to be occasioned by the remarkable construction of its 

 windpipe; but the fact, that the females are uniformly the most 

 noisy, and yet are entirely destitute of the singularities of this 

 conformation, overthrows the probability of this supposition. 



* This is a young male and not a female. 



