218 ANAS LABRADORA. 



274. ANAS LABRADORA, GMELIN AND WILSON. PIED HTCK. 

 WILSOM, PLATE LXIX. FIG VI. 



THIS is rather a scarce species on our coasts, and is 

 never met with on fresh water lakes or rivers. It ig 

 called by some gunners the sand shoal duck, from it- 

 habit of frequenting sand bars. Its principal food 

 appears to be shell fish, which it procures by diving. 

 The flesh is dry, and partakes considerably of the nature 

 of its food. It is only seen here during winter ; most 

 commonly early in the month of March, a few are 

 observed in our market. Of their particular manners, 

 place, or mode of breeding, nothing more is known. 

 Latham observes, that a pair in the possession of Sir 

 Joseph Banks were brought from Labrador. Having 

 myself had frequent opportunities of examining both 

 sexes of these birds, I find that, like most others, they are 

 subject, when young, to a progressive change of colour. 

 The full plumaged male is as follows : Length, twenty 

 inches ; extent, twenty-nine inches ; the base of the 

 bill, and edges of both mandibles for two-thirds of their 

 length, are of a pale orange colour ; the rest, black ; 

 towards the extremity it widens a little in the manner 

 of the shovellers, the sides there having the singularity 

 of being only a soft, loose, pendulous skin ; irides, dark 

 hazel ; head, and half of the neck, white, marked along* 

 the crown to the hind head with a stripe of black ; the 

 plumage of the cheeks is of a peculiar bristly nature at 

 the points, and round the neck passes a collar of black 

 which spreads over the back, rump, and tail-coverts ; 

 below this colour the upper part of the breast is white, 

 extending itself over the whole scapulars, wing-coverts, 

 and secondaries ; the primaries, lower part of the breast, 

 whole belly, and vent, are black ; tail, pointed, and of 

 a blackish hoary colour ; the fore part of the 

 and ridges of the toes, pale whitish ash ; hind part, 

 the same, bespattered with blackish ; webs, Mark ; tin- 

 edges of both mandibles are largely pectinated. In 

 young birds, the whole of the white plumage is generally 



