BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE VELVET DUCK. 



DOUBLE SCOTER, OR GREAT BLACK DUCK. 



(Anas Fiisca, Linn. Canard double macrcuse, Temm.) 



WEIGHS about three pounds two ounces, and 

 measures above twenty inches in length. The 

 upper mandible is broad, and flat, and rises into a 

 kind of black knob at the base : the nostrils are of 

 the same colour, and stand out on each side; the 

 middle, or ridge, and the nail, are red: the rest of 

 it is orange yellow, edged with black. The under 

 mandible is pale or yellowish white, edged and 

 spotted with black, and tipped with deep yellow: 

 both are coarsely serrated. The head is large, the 

 eyes small, with a spot of white below each ; and 

 the irides are nearly of the same colour. All the 

 rest of the plumage, excepting a white stroke or 

 band which crosses the closed wings in an oblique 

 direction, is of a soft smooth sooty black, glossed 

 with a cast of purple on the head, upper part of the 



