LONG-TAILED DUCK. 235 



The length of this species is twenty-two inches ; 

 extent, thirty inches; bill, black, crossed near the 

 extremity by a band of orange ; tongue, downy ; iris, 

 dark red ; cheeks and frontlet, dull dusky drab, passing 

 over the eye, and joining a large patch of black on the 

 side of the neck, which ends in dark brown ; throat 

 and rest of the neck, white ; crown, tufted, and of a 

 pale cream colour ; lower part of the neck, breast, 

 back, and wings, black ; scapulars and tertials, pale 

 bluish white, long, and pointed, and falling gracefully 

 over the wings; the white of the lower part of the 

 neck spreads over the back an inch or two; the white 

 of the belly spreads over the sides, and nearly meets at 

 the rump ; secondaries, chestnut, forming a bar across 

 the wing ; primaries, rump, and tail-coverts, black ; 

 the tail consists of fourteen feathers, all remarkably 

 pointed, the two middle ones nearly four inches longer 

 than the others; these, with the two adjoining ones, 

 are black ; the rest, white ; legs and feet, dusky slate. 



On dissection, the intestines were found to measure 

 five feet six inches. The windpipe was very curiously 

 formed ; besides the labyrinth, which is nearly as large 

 as the end of the thumb, it has an expansion immediately 

 above that, of double its usual diameter, which continues 

 for an inch and a half; this is flattened on the side next 

 the breast, with an oblong window-like vacancy in it, 

 crossed with five narrow bars, and covered with a thin 

 transparent skin, like the panes of a window ; another 

 thin skin of the same kind is spread over the external 

 side of the labyrinth, which is partly of a circular form. 

 This singular conformation is, as usual, peculiar to the 

 male, the female having the windpipe of nearly an 

 uniform thickness throughout. She differs also so 

 much in the colours and markings of her plumage as to 

 render a separate description of her necessary; for 

 which see the following article. 



