BLACK, OR SURF DUCK. 215 



271. AXAS PERSPICILLATA, LINNAEUS AND WILSON. 



BLACK, OR SURF DUCK. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXVII. FIG. I. 



THIS duck is peculiar to America, and altogether 

 confined to the shores and bays of the sea, particularly 

 where the waves roll over the sandy beach. Their food 

 consists principally of those small bivalve shell fish 

 already described, spout fish, and others that lie in the 

 sand near its surface. For these they dive almost 

 constantly, both in the sandy bays and amidst the 

 tumbling surf. They seldom or never visit the salt 

 marshes. They continue on our shores during the 

 winter, and leave us early in May for their breeding 

 places in the north. Their skins are remarkably strong, 

 and their flesh coarse, tasting of fish. They are shy 

 birds, not easily approached, and are common in winter 

 along the whole coast from the river St Lawrence to 

 Florida. 



The length of this species is twenty inches, extent 

 thirty-two inches ; the bill is yellowish red, elevated at 

 the base, and marked on the side of the upper mandible 

 with a large square patch of black, preceded by another 

 space of a pearl colour ; the part of the bill thus marked 

 swells or projects considerably from the common surface ; 

 the nostrils are large and pervious ; the sides of the 

 bill broadly serrated or toothed; both mandibles are 

 furnished with a nail at the extremity; irides, white, 

 or very pale cream ; whole plumage, a shining black, 

 marked on the crown and hindhead with two triangular 

 spaces of pure white ; the plumage on both these spots 

 is shorter and thinner than the rest; legs and feet, 

 blood red ; membrane of the webbed feet, black ; the 

 primary quills are of a deep dusky brown. 



On dissection the gullet was found to be gradually 

 enlarged to the gizzard, which was altogether filled with 

 broken shell fish. There was a singular hard expansion 

 at the commencement of the windpipe, and another 



