BRITISH BIRDS. 



329 



THE SCOTER. 



BLACK DUCK. 



(A}ias Nigra y Linn. Canard itiacreuse y Temm.^ 



WEIGHS generally about two pounds nine ounces, 

 and measures sixteen or eighteen inches in length, 

 and thirty-four in breadth. The base of the upper 

 mandible is raised up into a kind of large knob, 

 divided downwards in the middle by a narrow 

 bright or deep yellow stripe, which is spread round 

 the projecting edges of the nostrils, and extended 

 nearly to the tip: the rest of the bill is black, 

 grooved along near the edges, where it is broad 

 and flat: the under mandible is also black: irides 

 dusky. From the curious conformation and ap- 

 pearance of the bill, [of which a more accurate 

 figure is subjoined,) this species cannot easily be 



VOL. II. 



2 T 



