598 SUMMER - DUCK. 
‘sixteen inches ; extent, twenty-eight: inches ; bill, dusky ; middle of 
the crown, and spot'on the side of the neck, blackish; a narrow dusky 
line runs along the throat for two inches; rest of the head, and upper 
half of the neck, white, lower half, pale vinaceous bay, blended with. 
‘white ; all the rest of the lower parts of the body, pure white; back, 
scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, bright ferruginous; centred with 
black, and interspersed with whitish; shoulders of the wing, and quills, 
black; lower part of the back, the same, tinged with brown; tail, pale 
brown ash ; inner vanes of all-but the two middle feathers, white ; legs 
and feet, dusky slate. The legs are placed far behind, which cir- 
cumstance points out the species to be great divers. In some females, 
the upper parts are less ferruginous. : 
Some writers suppose the singular voice, or call, of this species, to 
be occasioned by the remarkable construction of its windpipe ; but the 
fact, that the females are uniformly the most noisy, and yet are entire- 
ly destitute of the singularities of this conformation, overthrows the 
probability of this supposition. 
—~——_. 
SUMMER DUCK, OR WOOD DUCK.— ANAS SPONSA. — 
Fie. 288. 
Le Canard d’Eté, Briss. vi. p. 351, 11, pl. 32, fig. 2.— Le beau Canard qe 
uff. ix. p. . Pl. enl. 980, 981.—Summer Duck, Catesby, i. pl. 97.— 
Edw. pl.101.— Arct. Zool. No. 943. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 546. — Peale’s Museum, 
No. 2872. 
DENDRONESSA SPONSA. —RicHarpson, Swarnson.* 
Anas sponsa, Bonap. Synop. p. 385, — Dendronessa sponsa, North. Zool. ii. 446. 
Tus most beautiful of all our Ducks has probably no superior . 
among its whole tribe for richness and variety of colors. It is called 
_* These lovely.Ducks may be said to represent an incessorial form among the 
anatidee ; they build and perch on trees, and spend as much time on Jand as upon 
the waters; Dr. Richardson has given this group, containing few members, the title 
of dendronessa from their arboreal habits. Our present species is the only one be- 
longing to America, where it ranges rather to the south than north; the others, I 
believe, are all confined to India. They are remarkable for the beauty and splen- 
dor of their plumage, its glossy, silky texture, and for the singular form of the | 
.scapulars, which, instead of an extreme development in length, receive it in the 
contrary proportion of breadth; and instead of lying flat, in some stand perpen- 
dicular to: the back. They are all adorned with an ample crest, pendulous, and 
running down the back of the neck. They are easily domesticated, but I do not 
know that they have been vet of much atility in this state, being more kept on ac- 
count of their beauty, and few have been introduced except to our menageries ; 
with a little trouble at first, they might form a much more common or. ament- about 
our artificial pieces of water. It is,the only form of a Tree Dwck common to this 
continent ; in other countries there are, however, two or three others of very great 
importance in the natural system, whose structure and habits have yet been almost 
entirely overlooked or Jost sight of. These seem to range principally over India, 
and more sparingly in Africa ; and the Summer Duck is the solitary instance, the 
United States the nearly extreme lim':, of its own peculiarities in this division of 
the world. — Ep. 
