NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 145 



Crossed the ferry in the hope of ascertaining the species, 

 and found the wounded bird alive, in a hen coop. Astwood 

 had fired three shots at it, without effect, and ultimately 

 knocked it down with a stone. His excuse for missing the 

 bird so often is its diving suddenly, at every discharge of 

 the gun. It was a handsome Duck, about twenty-one inches 

 in length, with a bill like the Common domestic Ducks, but 

 smaller. Plumage, reddish brown. Feet, orange colour — a 

 narrow white line, about half-an-inch long, behind each eye. 

 Made an offer to purchase the bird, and returned to town. 



At 6 p.m., the bird was sent to me. It measured twenty- 

 one and three-fourths inches in length ; eyes, hazel, and very 

 dark, with little appearance of irides. Bill, bluish, with a 

 black nail at the extremity, and a large black mark in front 

 of the nostrils. Tail of fourteen pointed feathers. Mirror, 

 grey, with a light tinge of greenish blue on some of the 

 secondaries which compose it, the whole narrowly tipped 

 with white. Legs and feet, orange yellow. Colour of the 

 head, reddish brown, darkest on the crown, an indistinct, 

 narrow white line behind each eye, extending down the 

 neck, and about two inches in length. Neck, upper parts, 

 and tail, greyish brown. Neck and side of breast, reddish 

 brown, thickly mottled with bright chestnut. Flanks, 

 broadly marked with the same chestnut colour. Wings, 

 brownish grey, the primaries tipped with very pale drab. 

 Lower part of the breast and abdomen, grey, mottled with 

 spots of chestnut colour. Under wing coverts and axillary 

 feathers, light grey, those in the middle of the wing marked 

 with undulating bars of a somewhat deeper shade. When 

 handled this duck's voice was rather like the quack of the 

 female domestic duck ; at other times it resembled the 

 clucking of a domestic hen. 



Could find no description of Audubon's or Wilson's to 

 warrant me in coming to any decision regarding the species 

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