CANVASS-BACK DUCK. 219 



strongly tinged with a yellowish cream colour ; in old 

 males, these parts are pure white, with the exception 

 sometimes of the bristly pointed plumage of the cheeks, 

 which retains its cream tint the longest, and, with the 

 skinny part of the bill, form two strong peculiarities of 

 this species. 



The female measures nineteen inches in length, and 

 twenty-seven in extent ; bill, exactly as in the male ; 

 sides of the front, white ; head, chin, and neck, ashy 

 gray ; upper parts of the back and wings, brownish 

 slate ; secondaries only, white ; tertials, hoary ; the 

 white secondaries form a spot on the wing, bounded by 

 the black primaries, and four hoary tertials edged with 

 black; whole lower parts, a dull ash, skirted with 

 brownish white, or clay colour ; legs and feet, as in the 

 male ; the bill in both is marked from the nostrils 

 backwards by a singular heart shaped outline. 



The windpipe of the male measures ten inches in 

 length, and has four enlargements, viz. one immediately 

 below the mouth, and another at the interval of an 

 inch ; it then bends largely down to the breast bone, to 

 which it adheres by two strong muscles, and has at that 

 place a third expansion. It then becomes flattened, and 

 before it separates into the lungs, has a fourth enlarge- 

 ment much greater than any of the former, which is 

 bony, and round, puffing out from the left side. The 

 intestines measured six feet ; the stomach contained 

 small clams, and some glutinous matter ; the liver was 

 remarkably large. 



275. AXAS VALISINERIA, WILSON CANVASS-BACK DUCK. 



WILSON, PLATE LXX. FIG. V. 



THIS celebrated American species, as far as can be 

 judged from the best figures and descriptions of foreign 

 birds, is altogether unknown in Europe. It approaches 

 nearest to the pochard of England, (anas ferina,') but 

 differs from that bird in being superior in size and 

 weight, in the greater magnitude of its bill, and the 



