THE SOUTH SOUTHERLY. 517 



DESCRIPTION. 



Male in summer. Bill black, orange-yellow towards the tip ; head, neck, and 

 breast, very dark blackish-brown; the head above, back, rump, and middle tail 

 feathers, black ; the whole side of the head from the bill and to behind the eyes and 

 the sides of the body, pale bluish-gray ; the portion of the cheek patch immediately 

 around and behind the eye with a longitudinal streak each side the occiput ; the 

 under parts generally, and the more external tail feathers, white; feathers on the 

 fore part of the back, with the scapulars, broadly edged with light reddish-brown ; 

 under wing coverts and axillars brownish-chocolate; no white whatever on the 

 wing. 



Male in winter. Differs from summer dress in having the head and neck white 

 to the jugulum and interscapular region; the gray of the cheeks persistent, and a 

 broad patch of black on the sides of the neck behind this ; the scapulars are pale 

 pearl-gray ; iris white. 



Female. Lacks the long points to the tail and scapulars ; the head and neck 

 dusky, with a whitish patch around the eye and on the sides of the neck behind. 



Length, twenty and seventy-five one-hundredths inches; wing, eight and ninety 

 one-hundredths ; tail, eight ; tarsus, one and thirty-eight one-hundredths ; commis- 

 sure, one and sixty-two one-hundredths inches. 



The Long-tailed Duck, so common in Massachusetts Bay 

 in the fall and spring migrations, breeds in the most north- 

 ern portions of the continent. 



Audubon, in describing the nest and eggs, says, 



" The nest was placed under an alder-bush, among rank weeds, 

 not more than eight or nine feet from the edge of the water, and 

 was formed of rather coarse grass, with an upper layer of finer 

 weeds, which were neatly arranged, while the down filled the bot- 

 tom of the cavity. [This was on the 28th of July, 1833. The 

 young birds had left this nest.] The number of young broods in 

 sight induced me to search for more nests ; and in about an hour 

 I discovered six more, in one of which I was delighted to find two 

 unhatched eggs. They measured two inches and one-eighth long, 

 by one and four and a half eighths broad ; were of a uniform pale 

 yellowish-green, and quite smooth." 



In the months of September and October, this bird is 

 most abundant in New England. It gathers in immense 

 flocks, and frequents the bays and inlets on the shore, 

 where, keeping up its peculiar cry or chatter, the noise 

 of the flock is sometimes to be heard at the distance of 

 a mile. It is in this season, that the gunner, with his 



