422 HISTORY or 



dive much, have a broad bill, bending upwards, a large bind toe, 

 and a long blunt tail. Pond-ducks, which feed in plashes, have 

 a straight and narrow bill, a small hind toe, and a sharp-pointed 

 train. The former are called, by our decoy-men, ybre!(/n ducks ; 

 the latter are supposed to be natives of England. It would be 

 tedious to enter into the minute varieties of such a number of 

 birds ; all agreeing in the same general figure, the same habits 

 and mode of living, and differing in little more than their size 

 and the colours of their plumage. In this tribe we may rank, 

 as natives of our own European dominions, the Eider Duck, 

 which is double the size of a common duck, with a black bill ; 

 the Velvet Duck, not so large, and with a yellow bill ; the 

 Scoter, with a knob at the base of a yellow bill ; the Tufted 

 Duck, adorned with a thick crest ; the Scaup Duck, less than 

 the common duck, with the bill of a grayish blue colour; the 

 Golden Eye, with a large white spot at the comers of the mouth, 

 resembling an eye ; the Sheldrake, with the bill of a bright red, 

 and swelling into a knob j* the Mallard, which is the stock from 



wings during the night. The small insects, &c. which they can catch on 

 the surface of the water are their first food. They are for some time cover, 

 ed with a yellowish down, and are unable to fly until they are three months 

 old. 



These birds are exceedingly distrustful, make many circumvolutions be- 

 fore they alight anywhere, swim always at a distance from the shore ; and 

 whea they sleep upon the water, wliich they often do, one of them always 

 watches as a sentiuel. In consequence of this, the pursuit of tliem is ex- 

 tremely difficult, 



The wild ducks in general prefer the northern regions ; but birds of such 

 powerful flight can easily be supposed to pass from one continent to another. 

 We find, in fact, this same species in corresponding climates in the New 

 World ; but the American species seems larger and more robust, though in 

 all other respects exactly similar. 



* We shall here notice more particularly a few of these varieties. 



The Velvet Duck. — It is an inhabitant of Europe and South America, and 

 (s between twenty and twenty-two inches in length. The plumage is black, 

 ish ; the lower eyelid and spot on the wings white ; the bill is yellow, black 

 in the middle, gibbous at the base ; the legs are red. The female is without 

 the gibbosity at the bill ; her body is brown ; and she lays white eggs. 



The Scaup Duck. — Inhabits Europe, Northern Asia, and America : it mi. 

 grates in winter to warmer climates ; its food is shell-fish, and is in length 

 from eighteen to twenty inches. The back and shoulders are cinereously 

 waved ; the belly is white ; it has also a white spot on each wing. The bill 

 is broad, and of a bluish ash-colour ; the irides yellow ; the head and neck 

 are f)i a greenish black colour ; the back and wing-coverts waved with black 

 aud cinereous ; the legs and primary q^uiU featliers are dusky ; the secouda 



