BRITISH BIRDS. 257 



of the neck, and meet in the middle: the other 

 parts of the neck, and the upper part of the breast, 

 deep rusty red, and the latter terminated by two 

 narrow bands of white and black: back and wings 

 dusky; the greater coverts edged with grey: sides 

 and lower part of the breast, black; belly, upper 

 and under tail coverts, white : legs dusky. 



This beautiful species is a native of Russia and 

 Siberia, whence they migrate southward in the 

 autumn, and return in the spring: they are said to 

 frequent the Caspian Sea, and are supposed to 

 winter in Persia. They are very rare in this 

 country, only three of them (so far as our own 

 knowledge extends) having ever been met with in 

 it, and those all by the late M. Tunstall, Esq., of 

 Wycliife, in Yorkshire, in whose valuable museum 

 the first of these birds, in high preservation, was 

 placed.* It was shot near London in the beginning 

 of the hard frost in the year 1766; and another of 

 them was, about the same time, taken alive near 

 Wycliffe, and kept there for several years in a 

 pond among the Ducks, where it became quite 

 tame and familiar. Mr. Tunstall informed Mr. 

 Latham of these particulars, and also mentioned a 

 third of the same kind, which had been shot in 

 some other part of the kingdom. They are said to 

 be quite free from any fishy taste, and are highly 

 esteemed for the table. 



* The foregoing figure was taken from this specimen, now in the 

 Newcastle Museum. 



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