164 SURF DUCK. 
of Pictou, however informs me that none are seen in Nova Scotia in 
summer. <A gentleman of Boston, with whom I once crossed the At- 
lantic, assured me that the species is extremely abundant on the north- 
ern shores of the Pacific Ocean, and about the mouth of Mackenzie's 
River. Doctor TownsENnp mentions it as being also found on the Co- 
lumbia. It appears that a single specimen of the Surf Duck has been 
procured on the shores of Great Britain; and this has induced the orni- 
thologists of that country to introduce it as a constituent of its Fauna. 
In all the individuals which I have examined, I have found the sto- 
mach to contain fish of different kinds, several species of shell-fish, 
and quantities of gravel and sand, some of the fragments being of 
large size. Their flesh is tough, rank, and fishy, so as to be scarcely 
fit for food. 
In the young males, in the month of September, the whole upper 
plumage is mottled with darkish-brown and greyish-white, the latter 
colour margining most of the feathers. The neck has a considerable 
extent of dull greyish-white, spread over two or three inches, and ap- 
proaching toward the cheeks and throat. This colour disappears about 
the beginning of January, when they become of a more uniform dark tint, 
the upper part of the head brownish-black, without any white spot ; 
there is a patch of brownish-white at the base of the upper mandible 
on each side ; another of an oblong form over the ear, and on the nape 
are elongated greyish-white marks ; the bill and feet dusky green, the 
iris brown. ' 
Anas perspicitiyata, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 201—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. 
p. 847. 
Buacx or Surr Duck, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 49, pl. 67, fig. 2. 
Furicura PERSPICILLATA, Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States. 
p. 389. 
Oremia PERSPICILLATA, Richards. and Swains. Faun. Bor. Amer, vol. ii. p. 449- 
Buacx or Surr Ducx, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 416. 
Adult Male. Plate CCCXVII. Fig. 1. 
Bill about the length of the head, very broad, as deep as broad at 
the base, depressed towards the end, which is rounded. Upper man- 
dible with the dorsal outline convex and descending, before the nostrils 
concave, on the unguis convex and declinate ; the ridge broad and con- 
vex at the base; the sides at the base erect, bulging, and very broad, 
towards the end convex, the edges soft, with about 30 internal lamelle, 
