302 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE PINTAIL DUCK. 



SEA PHEASANT, CRACKER, OR WINTER DUCK. 



(Anas Acuto^ Linn. Canard d, longuc qtteuc ou pilef, 

 Temm.) 



THIS handsome-looking bird is twenty-eight 

 inches in length, and thirty-eight in breadth, and 

 weighs about twenty-four ounces. The bill is 

 rather long, black in the middle, and blue on the 

 edges : the irides reddish : the head and throat are 

 of a rusty brown, mottled with small dark spots, 

 and tinged behind the ears with purple: the nape 

 and upper part of the neck are dusky, margined by 

 a narrow white line, which runs down on each side, 

 and falling into a broader stripe of the same colour, 

 extends itself on the fore part as far as the breast ; 

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



