76 DUCKS. 



556, The Scoter appears in Sweden in the carlieft fpring, ready for its 



migration towards the extreme north. 



S^^' The Long-tailed Duck is the true Alfogel of the Swedes, not the 



Pintail. Linn^us has formed two fpecies out of it, and I have de- 

 fcribed a young male as its female ; fo great are the variations of plu- 

 mage in different ftages of life. I have feen many, but all of them 

 fluffed. Mr. Oedman, who has had opportunity of examining multitudes 

 frefh from the fhot, thus defcribes an old female. 



The bill is black, fometimes furrounded with a pale circle, fometimes 

 plain : the region of the eyes white : crown, and a certain fpace on 

 each fide of the neck, duflcy : round the lower part of the neck is a 

 whitifh collar : breaft mixed with dufky and grey, growing gradually 

 hoary till it is loft in the whitenefs of the belly : fhoulders varied with 

 dufky, rufous, and grey : back and rump black, fprinkled tranfverfely 

 with grey : primaries dufky : the coverts mixed with grey : tail fhort 

 and cuneiform. 



The crown and neck of the young female is black, fprinkled with 

 white : acrofs the bill is a band of red : fpace round the eyes cinereous, 

 edged with white : throat, bottom of the breafl, and belly, white : back 

 dufky-afh : tail dufky, white on its fides. It may be obferved, that 

 the younger the bird is, the more it is tinged with rufous : and that the 

 long feathers in the tail are the charadter of the male. — Mr. Oedman. 



The Western Duck, and another, fuppofed to be its female, have 

 been killed at one fhot, in a river in OJier-Gotland, and are both en- 

 graven in the Muf. Carlfon, tab. vii. viii. 



The Female is entirely ferruginous, marked with dufky and black : 

 ' ■ the bill and legs black: the primaries, and greater coverts, dufky, fome 



of the latter tipt with white. Has much refemblance to the Red 

 Duck of the Ar£tic Zoology ^ II, p. 576. N. 



CLASS 



