SUMMER-DUCK, OR WOOD-DUCK. 373 



these birds affect. Their food consists of seeds and insects, and 

 their flesh at times is excellent. They are easily tamed when 

 taken young, and soon become completely domesticated. 



DESCRIPTION. 



" The wood-duck is nineteen inches in length and two feet four 

 inches in extent ; bill red, margined with black ; a spot of black 

 lies between the nostrils, reaching nearly to the tip, which is also 

 of the same color, and furnished with a large hooked nail ; irides 

 orange-red; front, crown, and pendent crest rich glossy bronze- 

 green, ending in violet, elegantly marked with a line of pure white 

 running from the upper mandible over the eye, and with another 

 band of white proceeding from behind the eye, both mingling 

 their long pendent plumes with the green and violet ones, pro- 

 ducing a rich effect ; cheeks and sides of the upper neck violet ; 

 chin, throat, and collar round the neck pure white, curving up in 

 the form of a crescent nearly to the posterior part of the eye ; 

 the white collar is bounded below with black ; breast dark violet- 

 brown, marked on the forepart with minute triangular spots of 

 white, increasing in size until they spread into the white of the 

 belly; each side of the breast is bounded by a large cres- 

 cent of white, and that again by a broader one of deep black; 

 sides under the wings thickly and beautifully marked with fine 

 undulating parallel lines of black, on a ground of yellowish drab ; 

 the flanks are ornamented with broad, alternate, semicircular bands 

 of black and white ; sides of the vent rich light- violet ; tail-coverts 

 long, of a hair-like texture at the sides, over which they descend, 

 and of a deep black, glossed with green; back dusky bronze, 

 reflecting green ; scapulars black ; tail tapering, dark glossy green 

 above, below dusky ; primaries dusky, silvery hoary without, 

 tipped with violet-blue ; secondaries greenish blue, tipped with 

 white ; wing-coverts violet-blue, tipped with black ; vent dusky ; 

 legs and feet yellowish red ; claws strong and hooked. 



" The female has the head slightly crested ; crown, dark purple ' 



