BIRDS. 



4.23 



whence our tame breed has probably been produced ; the Pintail, 

 with the two middle feathers of the tail three inches longer than 

 the rest ; the Pochard, with the head and neck of a bright bay ; 

 the Widgeon, with a lead-coloured bill, and the plumage of the 



ries are wliite, tipped with black ; the tail covert and the vent ai-e black. 

 The female birds are brown ; the bill black, surrounded with a circle of 

 white feathers ; the neck rusty ; the belly is white ; and there is a bar of 

 white on each wing- ; the legs are black. 



The Shieldrake.— This has a flat bill, a compressed fore-head, a greenish 

 black head, and the body variegated \vith white. It is an inhabitant of the 

 northern world as far as Iceland. They usually breed in deserted rabbit- 

 boles, and lay tifteen or sixteen roundish white eggs ; and sit about thirty 

 days. " '1 hey are very careful of their young," says Latham, " and will 

 carry them from place to place in their bills." They also show much in. 

 stinctive cunning in preserving them when attempted to be caught; for 

 they u-ill fly along the ground as if wounded, till the brood are got into a 

 phu'e of security. Their great beauty has induced many unsuccessful at- 

 tempts to domesticate them ; but they never thrive, unless in the neigh- 

 bourhood of salt water. The eggs are thought good ; but the flesh of tliis 

 bird is rank and unsavoury. 



The Mallard— Is about the size of the preceding ; its bill, from the angles 

 ot the mouth to the tip, is about two inches and a qu;irtcr, and near an inch 

 broad, with a roundish tip at the end ; the head and upper part of the neck 

 are of a beautiful shining green ; the under eyelids white, with a sort of half 

 circle or wliite ring that passes round the fore-part of the neck ; the under 

 piu-t of the neck below the white ring to the breast, is of a glossy chestnut 

 colour. The under parts of the breiust and belly are a sort of ash-colour, 

 pprinkled with a variety of dark specks resembling drops ; the back between 

 the wings is of a cinereous red, in like manner sprinkled or speckled ; the 

 lower part towards the rump still diu-ker ; the rump itself of a sort of glossy 

 purple. The sides of the body and the longer thigh feathers are beautified 

 with transverse brown lines, with a bluish sort of ml.xture. The scapulai 

 fcHtliors of the wings are of a fine silver colour, beautifully variegated with 

 brown transverse lines ; the second row of the quill feathers tipt with white, 

 with the outward webs of a fine bluish purple, and a border of black running 

 between the white and the blue ; the rest of the wings variegated with sil- 

 ver-coloured feathers, with some of their edges black, others of a dark pur. 

 pie. 'Ihe under parts of thi? tail is black, tlie feathers on the upper end iu 

 sharp points, the middlemost of which turn up in a circular form towards 

 the back, and appear of a fine glossy purple colour. They are feathered 

 down to the knees ; the legs and feet are of a siilfron colour. 



I.nnff.Ttiiled Djtc/t— The tail is pointed and long; the body is black ; it 

 Is whitish beneath. It inhabits Kurope, Asia, and America. The bill ii 

 black, orange-coloured in the middle ; it is reddish gray on the fore-part ot 

 the head and sides ; hind-part, breast, and belly, white ; the scapulars are 

 /oiig and white ; on each side of the neck it has a black spot ; the lower 

 part of the breast, back, wings, and tail, are of a chocolate colour; the lour 

 middle tiiil feathers are black ; the two middle ones longer than the reel ; 

 tlio others are white ; the logs are du.sky red, or blackish. The Icniale has 



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