Various Foreign Ducks. 553 



upper neck ; bill red ; clieeks and throat drab ; lower neck and upper breast brown, shading into 

 drab ; breast and thighs black ; back and wings dark glossy brown ; tail black ; around the vent 

 black, with white spots ; feet and legs of a pinky flesh-colour. The female is rather smaller than 

 the male, and less brilliant in plumage ; the marking being the same. 



" The White-faced Whistling Duck {Dcndrocygna vidjtata) is a very pretty bird, and much 

 esteemed by fanciers, being mostly seen at poultry-shows in the class for ornamental water-fowl. 

 The Vidiiata is not, however, so rare or pretty as the Autiimnalis. Head from base of bill to 

 behind the eye and under the jaw, white ; back of head, also back of neck, black ; a black band 

 also running round the throat ; below the throat a patch of white ; bill black, except around the 

 nail at tip, which is of a leaden colour ; front of neck chestnut ; lower part of back of neck slightly 

 pencilled ; side of breast pencilled, the pencilling being black upon light brown or drab ; centre of 

 breast and belly black ; thighs black ; centre of feathers on back and wings dark brown edged with 

 drab ; tail black ; legs and feet lead-colour. The female is rather smaller than the male, and, 

 although the markings are the same, the colours are not quite so brilliant." 



THE BAHAMA DUCK {Pcecilonctta Baliamcnsis) is occasionally shown, and is a pretty 

 bird, the plumage being chiefly light brown pencilled with dark brown. There is an almost 

 similar species found at the Cape of Good Hope. 



THE JAPANESE TEAL {Qucrqucdula formosii) is a most beautiful bird lately introduced, 

 and has, we believe, never yet bred in captivity ; but as it appears in all its habits and some points in 

 its general appearance to be allied to the Mandarin, this difficulty will however be probably over- 

 come. The top of the drake's head is black or dark grey, below which is a white streak just over the 

 eye. From the eye descends nearly perpendicularly a black stripe, meeting a black patch under 

 the throat, and enclosing a triangular white space in front of the face. Behind this stripe is another 

 of white, behind which and backwards from the eye is a large crescent of bronze-green, the lower 

 horns of which come forward and nearly meet in front of the breast. The breast is a light purple 

 beautifully spotted with black, shading off to white on the under pa.rts. The shoulders and flanks 

 are a beautifully-pencilled silver-grey, with a broad white stripe or crescent on the shoulder at the 

 same place as that on the Mandarin. The wing-spot is bronze-green, bordered above with brown 

 and below with white. The tail and wings are brownish grey, but the shoulder or upper wing- 

 coverts are very peculiar, being long and pointed like hackles, and falling over the wings. These 

 hackle-feathers are black in the qentre, edged on one side with brown and on the other with white, 

 and give a very smart appearance. Under the tail is black. The female is a plain bird, not unlike 

 the female Mallard. 



THE FALCATED DUCK {Querqtiedida fakarid) has similar hackle-like appendages to the 

 wings. The drake is most beautifully pencilled on the body with black on a silver-grey ground ; 

 the head purple beautifully glossed with green, and having a crest of the same colour ; the throat 

 white, below which is a collar of green, and below that another ring of white. This bird too 

 has never bred, and only one or two have ever reached this country, but in habits it is similar to the 

 foregoing. In beauty we consider these two varieties rank next to the Carolinas and Mandarins. 



Many of the wild British ducks have also been shown *from time to time, and some of them 

 are very beautiful, while they can be often procured of the dealers in Leadenhall Market, by those 

 who have the opportunity, at much less expense than the foreign varieties. The wild Mallard 

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