260 RING-NECKED DUCK. 



and then, while near the females, none of which seem to pay the least at- 

 tention to their civilities. 



Whilst in ponds, they feed by diving and dabbling with their bills in 

 the mud amongst the roots of grasses, of which they eat the seeds also, 

 as well as snails and all kinds of aquatic insects. When on rivers, their 

 usual food consists of small fish and crays, the latter of which they pro- 

 cure at the bottom. A male which I shot near Louisville, in the begin- 

 ning of May, exhibited a protuberance of the neck so very remarkable as 

 to induce me to cut the skin, vvhen I found a frog, the body of which was 

 nearly two inches long, and which had almost choked the bird, as it al- 

 lowed me to go up within a dozen or fifteen paces before I took aim. This 

 species remains with us in the Western country later than most others of 

 its tribe, and not unfrequently as late as the Blue-winged Teal. 



We are indebted for the discovery of this species to my friend the 

 Prince of Musignano, who first pointed out the difference between it and 

 the Tufted Duck of Europe. The distinctions that exist in the two spe- 

 cies he ascertained about the time of my first acquaintance with him at 

 Philadelphia in 1824, when he was much pleased on seeing my drawing 

 of a male and a female, which I had made at Louisville in Kentucky pre- 

 vious to Wilson's visit to me there. Wilson supposed it identical with 

 the European species. 



The summer haunts and habits of this Duck have not been ascertained ; 

 for although Dr Richardson mentions that he found it not rare in the 

 fur countries, he says nothing of its eggs or nest. While with us it has 

 no long crest, but I am inclined to think that at the commencement of 

 the breeding season that appendage may be developed. 



FuLiGULA RUFiTORQUEs, Ch. Bonaparte^ Synops. of Birds of United States, p. 393. 

 o-UFTED Duck, Anas Fuligula, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. CO. pi. 67, fig. 5. 

 Ring-necked Duck, Fuligula iiuFiTORauEs, Swains, and Richards. Fauna-Bor. 

 Amer. part ii. p. 453. — Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 439. 



Adult Male. Plate CCXXXIV. Fig. L 



Bill about the same length as the head, rather deeper than broad at 

 the base, depressed and enlarged towards the end, the frontal angles acute. 

 Upper mandible with the dorsal line at first sloping, then concave, along 

 the unguis decurved, the ridge broad and flat at the base, then broadly 

 convex, the sides nearly flat and perpendicular at the base, convex and 



